Different Outcomes
by Ariza Luca
Summary: (Adopted from Scorching Puppet Strings!) Only one. One choice. One movement. One request. It only takes one thing to have completely Different Outcomes.
1. Chapter 1

**So if any of you guys know (of) Scorching Puppet String's story 'Different Outcomes', it turns out they are not going to finish it, which of course was very disappointing because** ** _heck_** **I wanted to read it. So I asked if I could adopt the story, they said yes; and so this is going to finish up Different Outcomes, although I will rewrite the first three chapters to suit my writing style more. It's always disorienting to have the author styles switch every chapter or so.**

 **Also, notice; this story will not be continued, as well as Charade and every other MCSM fic I have up, until after I finish Minecraft: Hide and Seek Mode. Feel free to check out all of my other stories as well!**

 **Onto the actual story!**

* * *

Jesse was getting a headache from the portals.

The hallways were brightly illuminated by every single color in the color spectrum, glowing with a faint yet somehow intense light. It was really dizzying. Ivor, Petra, and Lukas had dropped behind and were arguing about which portal to take next. So far they'd had a couple encounters with some bats, and at one point Petra had had to yank a squid off of her head.

Yeah, that had _not_ been fun.

Jesse's eyes scanned the hallway relentlessly, looking for a Nether portal; or at least something resembling one. If they could find a portal that lead to the Nether, or the End, or whichever, it could take them home. If they went to the Nether, they could go blundering through the fiery world until they found the minecarts, and if they went to the End, they would eventually stumble across Soren's Ender portal. So that'd be something.

Jesse spotted a little offshaft and stuck her head through it, taking a look. There was only one portal at the end of this one, so she rounded the corner and headed towards it, excitement mounting as she looked at what looked as if it was a normal Nether Portal.

It began to fade again when she spotted how the swirling substance moved differently.

Instead of swirling and eddying in the obsidian arch, it zigged and zagged in jagged, sharp motions. She stopped in front of it, a dull feeling of dread dancing in the pit of her stomach. She was wondering what in the world brought that one when something suddenly slammed into her back, knocking her forward.

Well, the Nether Portal _felt_ the same, at least- icy hot. No, wait a minute, no it didn't... it wasn't icy hot, it was just _hot_. Jesse'd only experienced this situation with Ender Portals before, but now her skin was practically burning off of her, her blood blazed into flames, her bones were liquefying from how _hot_ it was, her lungs crumpling from lack of oxygen-

And then she was gone through the portal, lost in a new world.

Petra poked her head into the offshaft, an incredibly uneasy silence falling as all three of them realized that Jesse, who'd walked down the dead-end offshoot was completely gone, not even waiting for them.

In her place were a few, lazy violet sparks floating in the air.

* * *

Jesse suddenly slammed into something hard- presumably the ground- and consequently groaned. Sitting up, she rubbed her head and looked around, recognizing the glowing red atmosphere of the Nether. And also the burned smell. Good thing she liked burned things. Yep, this was definitely the Nether.

But _was_ it the Nether? The temperature from the portal had been cranked down like seven degrees; Jesse was pretty sure the Nether she was used to was at least a hundred degrees lower than this.

"Out of the frying pan and into the fire," Jesse grumbled sarcastically, her voice echoing into the emptiness.

And then she realized the emptiness was _there_ and stood up, armor scraping against the ground slightly as she got up, looking around and feeling confusion display itself on her face.

Nothing. No zombie pigmen, no Withers, no Blazes, not even a Ghast. Not even the mushrooms were there.

Jesse stared around herself for a minute, feeling utterly bewildered. "What the heck?" she asked finally, voice echoing again in her dry throat.

Oh yeah. Maybe she should get out of here and get some water.

Trotting throughout the place, feeling her throat get dryer and dryer by the minute, she by sheer luck found a Nether Portal. Hoping for the best, she trotted through, this time holding her breath and knowing to brace herself for the sensation. Didn't make it any less unpleasant, though.

Stepping through the portal, she tripped again and sprawled onto some clear green grass, the heat completely gone. The grass felt rather cool on her skin, and she lay there for a moment, before sitting up again, her skin feeling painfully tingly and her muscles screaming that they were cramping. She coughed a bit, and managed to spit out a mouthful of ashes on the ground. She looked at it for a minute, staring at it uncomprehendingly due to the fact that her mind was a bit fuzzy from her two consecutive trips through the portals, when she heard footsteps and a few shouts of alarm.

She turned a minute too late.

Something slammed into the side of her head violently, and Jesse found herself right back where she'd been a minute ago. She was vaguely annoyed by the fact she was knocked out. Everything was going blurry, but from what she could see through her blurry vision were a pair of cold, dark eyes.

Eyes of someone she knew very well.

Her mouth could not form the name, but it welled up in her throat as she stared for a moment.

 _Olivia?_

And then everything went pitch-black.

* * *

The Order of the Stone, the Ocelots, and Petra gaped soundlessly as Axel came into the bunker, carrying a small figure in his arms. Olivia had a hard look on her face, and Axel looked incredibly upset.

They were mostly shocked about who the two of them were carrying.

A small girl wearing enchanted armor, with long black hair and a gold pin in her hair. And if they'd opened her eyes, all of them would've been willing to bet that they would've seen a pair of emerald green eyes staring back.

The same girl who'd tried to defeat the Witherstorm.

The girl who was destroying their world.

 **A/N: ... yeah. I hope this was okay, Scorching Puppet Strings! Please review and let me know what you think about the first chappie.**

 **Toodles!**

 **x.X. A.L. X.x.**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Should I be working on Minecraft Hide and Seek Mode? Yes. Am I going to? Yes. After I get to the point Different Outcomes was at when Scorching Puppet Strings finished. Then it shall be on hold until I'm done with Minecraft Hide and Seek Mode. And then I might work on Charade once this is done.**

Jesse came to with her wrists and feet tied to the arms of a small, metal chair. Her upper arms and back were pressed harshly against the back of said chair, meaning certain back pain later. Joy. Her feet were tied to the front legs of the chair, which of course is never a comfortable affair. Although, at least she wasn't thirsty anymore.

Her arms had that familiar prickly feeling that meant pins and needles. She tried to wiggle her limbs, but got nothing at all. Great. Her limbs were going to fall asleep soon. She sighed and looked around the room she was in, her eyes half-lidded.

She was in this room made completely of Obsidian and lit by torches, the dark black stone smooth and shiny. She was sitting in front of a wooden table placed in the center of the room. For a moment, her brain suddenly summoned the image of sitting at the head of the table on her birthday, and she had to actually bite back a giggle. Two or three chairs surrounded it, one occupied by-

Jesse's lungs had the air whisked out of them.

 _Axel?_

Axel was leaning back in his chair, snoring slightly as his hands dangled lazily by his sides. Jesse was about to open her mouth and say hello, but she stared at her green-clad friend, trying to figure something out.

Something was off.

No, it was NOT the fact that she was tied up like a pig for slaughter, although that DID play a pretty big role in it. No, it wasn't the throbbing pain in the side of her head from where Olivia had smacked her earlier.

No, it was just the fact that he looked different.

Her Axel even sat and slept differently than her Axel. Her Axel had black hair, pale skin, and his fluffy green hoodie that he'd sometimes smother her with when she was annoying him. This one had greasy, almost... _gray_ hair, sunburnt skin, and wore this green armor. He wasn't even wearing his usual half-grin, which definitely made Jesse's stomach squirm uncomfortably. She didn't see her old friend, but a friend who'd changed.

And it looked as though he might've changed for the worse.

"Axel?" she asked, slowly.

The reaction was immediate.

Axel shot out of the seat like a cannonball, fists shaking, looking around wildly with eyes brimming with fear and rage. Jesse felt a shiver run down her spine. She'd never seen Axel acting so... paranoid before. Not even during April Fools' Day two years ago. He seemed to snap out of a fearful haze when he spotted the bewildered black-haired girl.

"Don't scare me," he hissed, like a wildcat, "I have orders to kill you if you attack, and I can make it look like you attacked me first."

Jesse blinked at him again. "... uh, okay. I didn't mean to scare you, you know. I was just kinda wondering, you know, why I'm tied to a damn chair." And she made a slight face as she tried to wiggle her limbs again, but failing. "And why you let my _legs fall asleep, Notch..._ "

Axel's mouth twitched for a second as he stared at her, before letting out a harsh bark of a laugh. "You know, you know why. Don't play dumb." His sarcastic laugh stopped as abruptly as it had started. "You know perfectly well."

"No, not really," Jesse said mildly, making the boy in front of her twitch a bit at her mild tone. "I'm not sure what's going on. I assume you carried me here after Olivia gave me a thump on the head. Can you at least tell me why?"

He glared at her. "Because you're an asshole."

 _Wonderful reasoning. You should be a logician._

"That's, uh... that's not really much of a reason, Axel," she responded.

He twitched at the mention of his name and frowned at her. "I think it is. It matches your personality perfectly, doesn't it?"

"Nah, I prefer to think I'm more of a 'tiny annoying mouse'," Jesse responded, barely able to keep from rolling her eyes at the memory of when the two of them had first met. She'd been watching Axel timidly from a tree when he'd suddenly and very loudly announced that he did not like 'tiny, annoying mice' before looking up at her tree. Needless to say, she'd squeaked, toppled out of said tree, and managed to land squarely on top of Axel. She smirked faintly at that memory.

In hindsight, _probably_ not the smartest thing to do.

" _SHUT UP!_ "

Jesse jumped violently as Axel slammed his fists onto the table, a bang echoing throughout the obsidian room and the sound of wood splintering slightly as cracks appeared in the violently trembling wood. He was downright glowering at her now, hatred and sentimentality battling in his dark eyes. "Just... shut up."

Jesse gave him a sad sort of look, before nodding simply.

Axel glared at her for a minute longer, before anger suddenly turned to loss and he slumped back into his chair with his head down and arms crossed.

Jesse watched him for a moment. She _knew_ Axel. He was one of her best friends. He was destructive, temperamental, and hated it when they ignored him. He was protective and could be incredibly sentimental when he was friends with someone. He did anything to protect his friends, and usually avoided arguing with them. This Axel acted pretty differently from her own, but he still had faint parts of him that Jesse recognized. She could see the fury and sadness mingling in his eyes when he looked at Jesse.

So this Jesse and this Axel must've been friends, great ones, until something happened. Something bad.

Judging from the way he was acting towards the black-haired female, it _was_ all her fault.

 **A/N: ... yeah.**

 **RapidSammi: Aw, you scared off Aiden. And I make no promises (nah I'll finish it, I just want to get some more of this out).**

 **rebekahtpe: Lol xD**

 **angelwings: I know right? I did too!**

 **The Ender Pickaxe: Thank you! And here is more (bows while looking very pleased)**

 **x.X. A.L. X.x.**


	3. Chapter 3

Jesse continued to watch Axel, who was squirming in his chair and trying to watch her while hiding his face. He was failing miserably at both. She saw a glimpse of his expression. It was hopeless.

She felt even sadder at the look he had on his face.

"Are you okay?" she asked, softly and a bit slowly, in case he exploded on her again.

Axel's head snapped up as he gave her an incredulous look, eyes flickering from rage, to sadness, to confusion, and then back to sadness. He opened his mouth for a moment, and then shut it, giving her this sad sort of smile for a moment.

"You're not Jesse, are you?" His voice was the softest Jesse had ever heard it.

Jesse hesitated for a minute, shifting in her seat for a moment. "... well, I am. Just... not yours," she said, in a small voice.

Axel seemed to accept the answer this time and let out a low, soft sigh as he nodded a bit. "Olivia suspected that. That's why you're not dead, you know. You're the same, but... different. With the enchanted armor, and the gold hairpin... and you act kinda different, too. Jesse would never... she's never kind." He breathed in for a moment. "We just kind of hoped you were actually Jesse. The one who used to be our friend... so then we can kill her."

 _Damn, he's bipolar._

"Ah." Jesse grinned sheepishly. "Uh, good thing I'm not her, then, right?"

Axel gave her one of his famous squinty looks. He tended to do that a lot, and seeing another familiar of her Axel made Jesse's nerves calm down a bit more. Which I suppose was pretty good. "Look, clone-"

"I'm not a clone..."

"I know you're not our Jesse," Axel said, completely ignoring Jesse's meek little interruption, "I know you're not our Jesse. Olivia suspects you're not, either. The others, though... most think you are. You should really thank Olivia when she comes over here. She really did save your life, you know."

Jesse nodded and gave Axel a tiny, faintly relieved smile. "Okey-dokey Loki. When will she get here?"

" _She_ ," a voice sounded from behind the door, "is already here."

The door opened and revealed herself to Jesse.

It was Olivia, of course. A scarred, tired, different Olivia, but Olivia all the same.

And behind her, there was a tiny, curious oink.

Jesse's lungs forgot how to function as a tiny pink pig edged around Olivia, the familiarity of the whole thing making her heart ache and her eyes widen as shock literally made her go completely still.

 _Reuben._

He was...

He was still alive.

She stared at him in disbelief, as well as utter silence.

Her tiny pink pig was riddled with bruises, scars, cuts. The tips of his ears were a bit ragged, and he looked as though someone hadn't cared for him in a long time. As soon as he caught a look of Jesse, he froze with a little whine, fear pooling into his pale brown eyes. Jesse felt her lungs remember how to inhale, painfully. It felt as though her lungs were water balloons that someone was trying to fill with a firehose.

He was _afraid_ of her.

She couldn't detect a trace of _her_ Reuben. Not really. She felt her heart thudding in her chest, still aching. Actually, it probably hurt _more._ One of her very best friends was terrified of her. Maybe even hated her.

Of course, none of these negative reactions were really _her_ fault... but the look he was giving her still made her hurt, from the tips of her toes to her numb fingers. For a moment, she foolishly wondered if it would hurt as much if her lungs forgot how to work again.

Olivia, on the other hand, was easily distinguishable. She had the same frizzy black hair and eyes, the same deadpan look on her face. The way she held herself seemed to scream 'too tired to care about you' and her fists were clenched. She wore deep red armor with diamond-encrusted borders, presumably for strength. If Jesse looked for long enough, she recognized pieces, bits of _her_ Olivia. If she blinked, she had to start all over, but she _did_ recognize those pieces, and that was a source of immense relief for her.

Axel, on the other hand, snorted a bit at Olivia's entrance, rolling his dark gray eyes. "Let me guess, you were standing behind the door the whole time."

Olivia's eyes narrowed, tone sharpening with anger. "Yes. I was. All _fifteen minutes._ You were supposed to bind Jesse, not take a nap!" she snapped at the burly boy.

"Rather loudly at that," Jesse added drily, although her voice trailed off a bit at the end, in case one of her two friends exploded on her again. Axel looked amused- for a brief moment- before gesturing at the black-haired girl, looking at Olivia with this bored look. "Don't get your redstone all in a twist, Liv. Look, Jesse's completely bound."

Olivia huffed, rolling her eyes. "I am fully aware of that, you idiot. My question is why it took ten extra minutes to interrogate her."

Axel shrugged.

Olivia's eyes flitted shut as she took a deep breath, letting it in and out slowly and then clasping her hands together and pointing at the boy, a sarcastic look in her eyes. "You _are_ aware the others are waiting for you, correct?" she asked, frustration decorating her voice.

Axel gave her another shrug, a cocky smirk playing on his mouth.

Olivia scowled at him before pacing out of the room, calling for the rest of the group.

Jesse watched silently with her emerald-green eyes as Axel reached out and gave the girl a couple of pats on the shoulder. "You're gonna have a tough hour ahead, buddy."

Jesse turned her head as much as she could to look at him, a puzzled look coming over her face.

"What do you mean by that?"

Unfortunately, Petra answered that question for her.

 **A/N: No new reviews!**

 **x.X. A.L. X.x.**


	4. Chapter 4

Petra had burst into the room with her sword unsheathed, nearly slicing the table in half in the process. Petra looked... feral. Her gold eyes glinted with malevolence that Jesse had never seen- not directed at _her,_ anyway- and she could hear this faint, soft _growl_ rising from her throat.

Behind her, Lukas casually walked into the room, his blue eyes icy cold as he observed everything silently, not even making a sound. Soren came in after him, giving Jesse this irritated look and crossing his arms as he leaned against the wall, glaring at her. Gabriel barely even glanced at Jesse, looking a bit lazy but eyes narrowed as he stared coldly at her. Jesse just met his gaze for a moment, before he had looked away again and was just standing there.

Ivor trailed in a minute later, dark blue eyes flickering up so he looked at her, his hand raising in a little wave, before he retreated to the corner of the room. Magnus lifted one hand in a wave as well, kind of hunched down, before he moved aside so Aiden and the Blaze Rods (or were they Ocelots in this world?) could walk in. Aiden's celery-green eyes looked up at Jesse's, and immediately dropped, and he scurried over to the corner of the room, Maya and Gill shifting aside so Olivia could walk in, slamming the door so that it echoed throughout the obsidian room. She dragged Jesse's chair a bit further away from the group of rather hostile people, the chair scraping against the floor. Jesse winced as the ropes dug into her wrists, but she didn't say anything. She also tried not to gasp as the ropes squashed her lungs for a moment.

"All right," Olivia said sharply, "Axel and I have interrogated the prisoner, and have concluded that she is, in fact, not our Jesse. We don't know where she's from, but I think she'll be glad to explain to the whole group, won't you, Jesse?"

Jesse raised an eyebrow at Olivia's threatening tone, but didn't retaliate. She wanted to know where she was, what sort of world she was in once going through the odd Nether Portal. It'd probably be best to start with the basics. "Sure. Um, I come from a world where there's only one moon, and during the night, mobs come out."

"Oh, _wow_ ," Gabriel drawled, raising his eyebrow mockingly at the black-haired girl, "so exactly like every single world in existence?"

"Not really, there are many different worlds with different attributes. For example, there's one world which is composed of, like, 99 percent sheep, and then another one where gravity turns like, ninety degrees, oh, and then there's Fire World, which doesn't have nighttime..." Jesse shuddered a little bit at a few of the memories, oblivious to the stares she was getting. "Sorry, I'm getting a bit off track, here. In my world, I'm a member of the New Order of the Stone. I-"

"BULLSHIT."

Jesse jumped a bit at the sudden outburst, swiveling her head to look at an enraged Soren. He glared at her. "There's only one Order of the Stone, and _I_ am the leader of it!"

"Well, technically there's three, now..."

Magnus coughed slightly, from where he was lurking in the back of the room. "She did say she came from a different world. Maybe all of us died and were replaced by a new Order." He shrank a bit when Soren turned his glare onto the rogue.

"It's difficult to believe," he said, voice clipped, "that any version of me can die and be replaced by a child."

Jesse gave him a sad sort of glance. It was clear that this version of Soren was rather temperamental and not terribly pleasant to be around- a deviation of the... debatably charming Soren she used to know.

"Well, good news, you didn't die. Nobody died except Ellegaard." She determinedly didn't look anywhere in Reuben's direction. Magnus shuddered a bit at the name. "Ellegaard died by helping my friends and me stop the Witherstorm. Um, you guys know what a Witherstorm is, right?"

"A maggot that deserves to burn and broil in its own filth," Petra snarled.

"Oh. I guess you do know what it is then. It really nearly destroyed the entire world until we banded together to destroy it. We managed to do that, and all of us were labeled as the New Order of the Stone-"

"Wait, you _destroyed_ the Storm?" Ivor asked, staring at Jesse. "How? Is there a weakness?"

Jesse bobbed her head up and down in a nod. "Yeah. Ivor made a failsafe from the block that was controlling it. Didn't you?" she asked him. Ivor looked rather sheepish for a moment. "No... I sort of... forgot."

Soren gave him a leer as Jesse gave him a flat look. "I would facepalm, if it were not for the fact that my hands have fallen asleep. So it's still out there, then?"

Lukas spoke up for the first time since he'd entered the room... or, well, at all. "Yes. And being controlled by you, to be precise."

Jesse stared at her blonde friend, completely confused, a lost sort of feeling spiraling through herself.

Her?

Control the Witherstorm?

As Soren had just said, _bullshit._ She'd rather eat her own sword than willingly control the monster Ivor had created. The monster that had killed Ellegaard, that had killed Reuben.

But... after hearing about her counterpart...

"No," she said softly, staring at him, shaking her head slightly. "I would never do that..."

Lukas tilted his head slightly, eyes still cold. "Are you sure? You abandoned us as soon as you got your hands on it-"

Jesse shook her head again, eyes dropping to the floor. She was pretty sure this haunted look came over her face. The Witherstorm's victims... her friends, Petra, Gabriel, Ellegaard, _Reuben..._ she'd abandoned her friends in this world just so she could control it?

"That's not me," she said, raising her eyes back to him, voice cracking a bit. "That Jesse..." It was a good thing ropes were tying every part of Jesse down; otherwise she'd been shivering so much she'd be practically vibrating. "That Jesse is _not me._ "

 **A/N: Wow, no reviews! xD Well, I hope you like this so far!**

 **x.X. A.L. X.x.**


	5. Chapter 5

Lukas let out a cold laugh that was so unlike the blonde Jesse almost didn't recognize him, even though he had the same hair and the same face and the same eyes- no, not the same eyes, this Lukas's eyes were colder than chips of ice. Her Lukas's eyes just looked like a clear, sunny day, and held a sort of warmth that was unmistakable. Talk about polar opposites. "Right. You just so _happen_ to come from a world where all of us exist in. You just so _happen_ to come from a world where the Witherstorm exists. Too coincidental, if you ask me. You're lying."

Jesse stared at Lukas silently, blinking rapidly trying to swallow the tears and hysteria rising up in her chest.

Now what the hell was she supposed to say? If she denied it, he would just keep claiming that she was lying and they'd get abso-freaking-lutely nowhere and waste a crap-ton of time. If she agreed (not that she would), they were just all going to kill her on the spot. Not the most opportunistic situation...

Thankfully, Axel came to the rescue. "C'mon, blondie-" In a much, much different situation, Jesse would've laughed at the nickname, but at the moment she was doing her best to not break into tears or something. She was having a bit of a panic attack. "Jesse doesn't act this way. Can't you see how emotional she's getting? Totally not the same Jesse that betrayed us."

Lukas gave the larger boy a sneer, although he did give Jesse a momentary glance. "Right, because _you_ can tell the difference between a friend and a traitor."

Axel laughed, sharply and not at all like how Axel usually laughed. Even the harsh bark was more similar than his laugh here. "Yes, actually, I can. I've known Jesse almost my whole life, and I can definitely tell you, she never acted this way; EVER. I believe her. Let's let her go. Besides, we can always kill and then loot her if she turns into a liar."

Jesse's eyes anxiously flicked from him to Lukas to Olivia.

Olivia nodded quietly from where she was standing, her arms crossed. In the torchlight, her entire face was shrouded in shadow, including her eyes. "I believe her too. Do the rest of you agree?"

Lukas shook his head, crossing his own arms, and Soren shot Jesse a cold look.

However, Ivor nodded and averted his eyes from Jesse, Magnus nodded from where he was looking at the floor, Gabriel glanced away with a nod and said nothing, Aiden shrugged, Maya and Gill made a soft agreeing sound, and Petra narrowed her eyes before shrugging slightly. Even Reuben let out an agreeing oink. Jesse determinedly refused to look at him, because she was sure if she did she was going to break down in tears or something similar and now was not a very good time to do so.

Majority ruled, and Axel tore the bindings off of Jesse. Jesse sat still for a minute, swinging her legs for a bit and feeling pins and needles race over her legs and arms as she shifted her weight around a bit, before shifting and reaching out, grabbing ahold of the table and then pulling herself to her feet shakily... and then sprawling very ungracefully on the floor, barely missing hitting her head on the edge of the table.

There was a stunned silence as everyone stared at Jesse, who lay on her stomach uncomfortably, feeling the pins and needles in her arms and legs prickle ever more uncomfortably. And then she said loudly, barely hiding the very annoyed tone in her voice, " _Well_ then! I'm clumsy, aren't I?!"

A few chuckles from people in the room as she managed to get back to her feet, stamping her feet slightly and feeling the... well, feeling come back into her limbs. Jesse gave Olivia a relieved grin as the pins and needles started to fade. "Thank you," she said sincerely.

Olivia gave Jesse this faintly puzzled and faintly amused look, before motioning to Petra with a curt nod. "Petra, escort... Jessica to her new room, and guard it."

"Oh joy. I get a watchdog," Jesse said sardonically under her breath, so that only Axel could hear. He snorted slightly.

"Make sure that no one gets in our out without our permission," Olivia finished. If she'd heard Jesse's sarcastic comment, she didn't indicate so.

Petra nodded enthusiastically before giving Jesse an incredibly unsettling grin, almost crazed gold eyes practically glowing in the torchlight. Without a word, the warrior practically crushed Jesse's grip in an iron grip and towed her out of the room, almost literally dragging her down the hallway- especially since Jesse could barely walk from her limbs being asleep.

Jesse almost missed Axel laughing heartily behind her in the room they'd just left, if you count nearly getting physically thrown out of the room 'leaving'.

"Have fun, you two!"

 **A/N: A bit shorter than usual, but if I try to make the chapter longer it'll get annoying.**

 **Well, I hope you liked it, my friends! Once again, updates will come after Minecraft Hide and Seek Mode.**

 **Anyone else worried about America's presidential election?**

 **x.X. A.L. X.x.**


	6. Chapter 6

**So... I lied a couple chapters back. Guess who's gonna juggle three MCSM fics at once?**

 **Yep.**

 **I'm so good at planning, aren't I... (hangs head)**

Jesse sat inside the obsidian prison Petra had lead her to. Petra sat right outside the door, and they'd returned some of her stuff. So that was something. Sadly not the flint and steel; or her sword. Which was a shame. That sword was Jesse's lucky one. It was the one she'd destroyed the Witherstorm with.

Destroying the Command Block had made the enchantment fade, unfortunately. But it was still very strong, stronger than normal diamond. And it was one of her favorite swords because it was the last thing Reuben had brought her before-

Her throat closed up. _Something else, something else, think of something else..._

So, she didn't have her sword. She still had the White Pumpkin mask, though, and the Eversource crown.

Jesse kicked her feet on the floor from the little cot they'd put in the room. At least she could _sleep_ in there, so that was something, right? But honestly, this was getting really boring. Were they just going to keep her in here endlessly? Oh gosh, how would Petra and the others even _react_ if Jesse didn't come back soon... would they even know which portal she'd gone through?

Her anxious train of thoughts were derailed by the sound of her stomach complaining to her rather loudly that it was hungry. She hadn't eaten... well, actually, for quite a while. Thinking about it, she considered her options. She could either sit here quietly and starve... or she could take her chances and ask Petra for something to eat. There was a pretty good chance Petra would just run her through...

Her stomach growled again, making the decision for her.

Trotting over, Jesse poked her head out the door, making the redhead look at her sharply, gold eyes narrowed and staring at her malevolently.

"Um," Jesse asked timidly, "c-can I eat something?"

Petra nodded, a rather enthusiastic look coming over her face, to Jesse's surprise. "Oh- sure!" she said.

Jesse blinked. With all the growling this almost feral Petra had been doing, she had almost been expecting Petra's voice to somehow have gotten deeper or something. But it still sounded like _her_ Petra.

Weird.

Petra rummaged around in her pockets, one hand keeping ahold of her sword. Jesse waited anxiously, shuffling her feet slightly, before Petra held out this pumpkin pie. It... actually looked really yummy. Jesse hadn't eaten pumpkin pie in a while, actually, now that she thought about it...

"Here!" Petra tossed it slightly, and Jesse's reflexes reacted before she even realized she was reacting- her arms shot out and caught the pie tin, the metal clanging on the metal of her armor slightly and making a metallic _thunk_ ring out. "Oh," she said, surprise heavy in every syllable as she looked from the pie to the redhead. "Um, thanks, Petra."

Jesse pondered how the heck she was supposed to eat it without looking rude, before picking up a small piece of the pie and putting it in her mouth.

She recoiled a bit automatically, barely able to swallow the piece that she'd put in her mouth. The pie tasted _disgusting._ The pie tasted like overripe pumpkin, with about a ton of sugar added in, as well as quite a bit of vinegar or lemon or _something_ sour. The sickeningly sweet-and-sour taste and the rather slimy texture of the actual pie slid down Jesse's throat like a slug.

Oh gosh, she did _not_ need that mental image...

Petra sneered at her, letting out a nasty laugh as Jesse regarded the pie. "How does it taste?" Petra asked, a sarcastic sort of smile on her face.

Jesse managed a weak little smile at the redhead. Well, as far as practical jokes went, this wasn't the worst thing to be stuck with. At least the pie wasn't poisonous, right?

Right?

"Well, not bad. I think it could use a little less sugar, though," she joked weakly, before giving Petra a thumb's up. "Nice prank, by the way. And I guess as far as being edible goes, it's pretty good. Thank you."

Petra's smirk faded so that she was outright staring at Jesse, a faintly confused look coming over her face. She stared at Jesse for a minute, before suddenly bolting out of the hallway.

"Wait, Petra! Pet- oh," and Jesse stared in the direction the redhead had run off to, blinking in confusion. "She's gone, then..."

She looked back at the pie, before sighing a bit and carrying it back inside the room, shutting the door behind her with a click.

Well, beggars couldn't be choosers...

* * *

Jesse poked her head out of the door again, to see Petra sitting in the chair, a confused sort of look still on her face as she stared at the opposite wall. Jesse looked at the opposite wall for a minute as well. She didn't see anything interesting about it, so she decided to get the redhead's attention.

"Hey, Petra."

The redhead looked at her again, a suspicious sort of look coming over her face. "..."

Jesse put the pie tin on the floor, which was completely empty except for a couple crumbs. "I, um, I hope you don't mind, but I ate the pie. It... well, it could've been a lot worse."

Petra kept staring. It actually made Jesse rather uncomfortable.

"Um, so... if you ever want to talk about anything," Jesse continued, feeling even more uncomfortable than before, "I'm just... well, I'm right in here, obviously."

Petra blinked at Jesse again. She looked completely confused at Jesse. Which confused Jesse, in turn. She didn't _think_ she was being confusing. "Um, well... see you later?" And she shut the door again.

She was pretty sure one of the reasons being a prisoner was so feared was that it was so utterly _boring._

 **A/N: This chapter has a sort of part two, so expect that up next chappie :3**

 **Luna96: Oh gosh... well, Clinton probably has more of a 'plan', but then there's the thing about her not being able to do anything if she becomes president, since the Senate's gonna be like "Haha fuck no lady" and then not pass the bill. But what am I doing, talking about politics in a story...**

 **Guest: Lol no prob**

 **angelwings: Lol xD Pies are great. Thanks!**

 **Scorching Puppet Strings: I'm glad you like it! I'm just kinda doing my best to interpret your notes at this point and go with my own writing style xD**

 **A Person: Hehe xD And I like writing this, so I'm excited to see where this goes as well... since I'm making this up as I go along, now...**

 **NoItsBecky: Well, there's always Taiwan...**

 **rebekahtpe: Ahh, you're Republican, then? Honestly, I'd vote for a third-party representative just so I could laugh in their faces.**

 **SquiddytheBlaze: Ahh... xD Evil is always fun And I agree... the worry is real, my friend. The worry is real.**

 **x.X. A.L. X.x.**


	7. Chapter 7

**I lied again! I'm doing four now. (sigh) Notch help me...**

Jesse was sitting in her cot and trying to figure out what to do in this state of extreme boredom.

Play hopscotch? She didn't have any chalk to draw it out.

Write something? She had nothing to write with.

Impersonate the White Pumpkin?

...

Eh, why not?

Taking the White Pumpkin out of her pocket, she popped it onto her head. "Testing, testing. Is this thing on?" she joked, her voice sounding _incredibly_ White Pumpkin-ish. "Wow, I _never_ cease to find this creepy. How does this thing work anyway?" She tapped the side of the pumpkin, hearing it as if she was tapping right next to her ear. "How does wearing a white pumpkin on your head make you able to sound like some sort of crazy serial killer? Heh, cereal killer." Jesse popped the pumpkin head off, trying to bite back her laughter at the ridiculous image of the White Pumpkin advertising breakfast cereal that had just popped into her head. She was not very successful.

She spotted Petra looking through the bars at Jesse, staring at her as if trying to figure out the source of the weird voice. Her brow was a bit furrowed, and she looked distinctly confused.

"Oh, it's just this creepy white pumpkin that makes your voice sound all weird. Ya wanna try it on?" Jesse held it out to Petra, smiling at the person who looked a lot like her best friend but was actually incredibly different.

Petra looked at the White Pumpkin. Then back at Jesse. She looked _incredibly_ confused now. "... why are you being nice to me?"

Jesse blinked.

Well, pretty safe to say she hadn't been expecting that...

"What?" Jesse asked, blinking a bit at her friend.

"Why are you being nice to me?" Petra repeated, brow furrowing a bit more as she watched the black-haired girl for her reaction.

Jesse stopped, looking at the White Pumpkin, then back at the gold-eyed redhead in front of her, wondering if Petra was joking. "... do you want me to _not_ be nice?" she asked Petra.

Petra made a huffy sound in the back of her throat, sitting in front of the door so that Jesse couldn't see her, even if Jesse went over to the door and stood up on her. "I... well, you're not a nice person."

Jesse spent a minute or two trying to puzzle out what she meant by that. "... your Jesse isn't," she said finally, facing the door. "I am. Or, well, at least I _hope_ I am."

A low snort. "... I didn't do anything good towards you. So why be nice? Do you want something?" The last four words were asked as a sort of demand.

Jesse blinked, looking at the pumpkin in her hands for a minute, before back at the door which she knew Petra was behind. "Well... not particularly. ... a friend here would be nice," she added, more to herself than anything else. "But! Let's nip that in the bud before this whole situation here gets too sappy. Do you want to try the head on or not?"

A short silence as Petra pondered Jesse. "You are the weirdest person I've ever met," Petra said finally, and faintly rudely. Jesse was not fazed.

"I've heard that a couple times, from various people. It's nothing new to me. Is that a yes or a no?"

"... sure."

Jesse eked the door open and handed it over to Petra, who took it and then disappeared behind the door. There was a bit of shuffling for a moment, before the White Pumpkin's voice, yet sounding _distinctly_ Petra-ish, spoke up.

"I AM A MURDERER WHO DEVOURERS THE SOULS OF THE INNOCENT. FEAR ME!" she roared, slamming her face inches from the bars, hands slamming into the bars. Jesse leaped back in shock, tripped, and landed on her butt. She blinked from her position before smirking at Petra. "How about a bagel instead?"

There was a long, long silence. "... what?"

Jesse thought about explaining the souls of the innocent and the bagel joke to Petra, but decided against it. "Nothing."

The door eked open, and Petra poked her head around the door, dumping the head unceremoniously on the floor. "No, seriously, what?" she asked, red hair barely brushing her shoulders as she looked evenly at the smaller female in front of her.

Jesse looked at Petra for a full minute, and suddenly she got up and had her arms around the redhead in a hug.

Petra went perfectly tense, but did not attempt to slice Jesse's head off her shoulders with her sword. That was a pretty good sign. The two of them stood in the awkward position for a few minutes, before Petra huffed and patted Jesse on the back sharply, although it was more like slapping. "Yeah, yeah, all right. Now stop hugging me before you completely destroy my reputation, lady."

Jesse couldn't help but laugh at this again. Petra smirked a bit, which seemed to be her equivalent, and leaned back out of the way before shutting the door again.

Jesse stooped down and scooped up the White Pumpkin, dumping it in her pockets, before going back to the cot and sitting down again.

Maybe Petra wasn't that bad in this world after all.

...

Still scared the crap out of her though.

 **A/N: Apologies for the short chapter. I am on a schedule and had to go to sleep xD**

 **rebekahtpe: Ehh forget I asked... -_- I hate politics...**

 **NinjaCat: Me too. And yeah, you have no idea...**

 **RapidSammi: Hehe xD Well, now Petra's gonna sort of be her friend now...**

 **SquiddyTheBlaze: Lol xD yes, great celebration. And yeah xD agreed**

 **NoItsBecky: Pfft fuck if I know xD**

 **DemonCatLady: Hehehe (Lenny Face) I guess they got freed from the Witherstorm when they tried bombing it?**

 **x.X. A.L. X.x.**


	8. Chapter 8

Jesse had regressed back to the stage of extreme boredom. One reason she didn't _entirely_ mind wandering through the portals, was because there was a slight excitement to the whole thing, being in a hallway that could take you anywhere you wanted, ever. She didn't like being bored. She really couldn't stand it. Once she got too bored she started doing stupid things. For example, humming 'Hold On, We're Going Home' while hanging upside down from her cot.

Yeah. She was _bored._

Someone was talking outside, before a pair of celery-green eyes peeked in at her. "Uh... h-hi, Jesse," said a timid little voice.

Jesse flipped over, misjudged, and managed to do a little flip before crashing onto her back on the floor. "... _ouch._ " Sitting back up, she blinked at her visitor. "Oh, hi Aiden."

He flinched a bit, as if he was expecting her to jump him. "Oh. H-hi."

"What's up?" Jesse asked casually, leaning her back against the cot.

"Um, well... d-do you want to get out?"

Jesse blinked at him. "... y-e-s," she said slowly, "why?"

He eked open the door a bit, poking his head into the room. He looked a bit fidgety, and to be fairly honest like he was about to bolt. He reminded Jesse of a field mouse she'd spotted once, getting ready to bolt once it caught sight of Jesse.

"Do you want to come out now?" He opened the door a little more, as if inviting her to come out.

Jesse stared at him, one eyebrow rising. "... is this a prank or something?" she asked after a full five minutes.

He flinched a bit. _Jeez, he's jumpy._ "U-uh, no..."

"Oh. Well okay then," and she bounced up, making him flinch again as she walked over to the doorway and came through. The other Bla- no, Ocelots, they were Ocelots here in this world, weren't they- were also standing there, looking at Jesse apprehensively.

"I don't bite you know," she joked, making them both jump in surprise.

Jesse looked at Petra. She was sitting there, arms crossed and one foot tapping in the air. "Are you going to make me go back inside?"

"No. Guarding you's boring."

"... I see." Jesse wasn't sure whether to laugh at the blunt comment, or be offended.

"What's going on?"

It was a good thing Jesse'd gotten used to Axel's old trick of sneaking up behind her and then seizing her shoulders, or else she would've jumped six feet into the air and brained herself. As it was, she still jumped a bit as she turned to see Lukas standing there, ice-cold eyes narrowed at them.

Aiden, however, had let out a loud squeak and was now hiding behind Jesse- a feat that failed rather miserably, since Jesse was a full three inches shorter than he was. "Um... h-hi, Lukas."

"Why is she out?" Lukas asked coldly. Jesse tilted her head at Lukas, eyes narrowing slightly but in a sad sort of fashion. The other Bl- Ocelots were looking at the ceiling and the floor as if they were the most fascinating things in the world, and Aiden looked as though he'd rather melt in fright.

"You're not very friendly, are you?" Jesse asked, lightly. The words came out of her mouth before she had a minute to consider it. The moment she said it, she knew she must've done something wrong- the Ocelots all sucked in a huge breath, and even Petra winced a bit.

Lukas narrowed his eyes at her. "Should I be?"

Jesse looked at him for a moment, before looking away. "Sorry," she said quietly.

Lukas looked confused- just for a second- before that impassive mask flickered back into place. "Well, get back inside."

Aiden coughed a bit, giving Lukas this worried look, as if he were afraid that the blond would lash out and hit him. "Um- c-could she stay out? S-she doesn't have any weapons... so s-she wouldn't be very harmful to us..."

"She could know how to fight in hand-to-hand combat," Lukas pointed out.

"Well, if she was going to jump anyone, she could've done so twelve times already," Petra grunted from where she was sitting, "We've opened the cell door several times by now and she hasn't done anything whatsoever to hurt us."

"Which you _weren't supposed to do,_ " Lukas said, eyes narrowing at Petra. Petra smirked back, a sarcastic look in her eyes. "What? What was she going to do? Punch me? I can handle her."

"You don't know that. What if she was _our_ Jesse?" Lukas asked, making Aiden flinch a bit at that, "she would've killed us all in five minutes." His eyes were narrow and squinted, and a lock of his blonde hair dripped out of its hairstyle and into his face a bit as he leaned forward.

Jesse automatically reached out and pushed it aside again, before a blazing pain hit her hand and it was slammed into the wall, Lukas glaring at Jesse, eyes still that icy cold blue. _"Don't. Touch. Me,"_ he uttered coldly.

Jesse jerked her hand free, shaking it a bit to restore circulation. "Jeez, sorry for being nice," Jesse grumbled, rolling her green eyes, not noticing the faintly puzzled look that creased Petra's brow.

Lukas looked momentarily startled, before his eyes grew cold again. "I don't need your empathy," he said, in a downright glacial tone.

"No you don't, but I needed to know that the Lukas _I_ know is still in there somewhere," and to everyone's surprise a broad grin was starting to make its way over her face. "The Lukas _I_ know hates having people touch his hair. Granted, he's gotten better if it's me or Petra touching it... but he still hates it."

Lukas stared at her for a moment, before sighing and turning away. "Fine. You can stay out. But if you try to attack any of us, we'll kill you."

"Your threat has been noted," Jesse said, still grinning. Lukas stalled, before walking off again.

Jesse let out a little breath she hadn't known she'd been holding, before turning back to the others, still smiling. "Well, that happened."

 **A/N: Welp, Jesse's out of her little prison now!**

 **Oh! Also, please go vote on the poll on my profile! I will seriously post this notice in every chapter I have from now on. Yes, I updated out of order. I didn't have the notes for Minecraft Hide and Seek Mode, since I'm typing this up in Computer Graphics (I finished up the project we're supposed to be working on two days before), so now you get an extra chapter of everything else. :3**

 **RapidSammi: Lol xD Be sure she doesn't cut off your hand**

 **NoItsBecky: Well, I'm glad you like it!**

 **rebekahtpe: Neither. I hate meat.**

 **Scorching Streaks of Paint: Is that okay with you? xD**

 **angelwings: Lol!**

 **A Person: Who said they're going to find her?**

 **SquiddytheBlaze: Hahaha! xD Nice! I'd be in Hufflepuff, because I am a friendly person. Either that or Ravenclaw, because every once in a while I say something that's incredibly philosophical.**

 **Guest: Lol xD**

 **x.X. A.L. X.x**


	9. Chapter 9

The 'bunker', as Jesse had heard it being called, was pretty darn big. Jesse was ninety-nine percent sure that she could go looking for the dining area and find herself in someone's bedroom by accident. Aiden was... _sort of_ giving her a tour. If giving someone a tour consists of standing on the complete opposite end of the hallway and pointing out random doors as they passed by them. And jumping every single time the person who's receiving the tour turns to ask you a question.

Jesse finally slowed down, when suddenly the door next to her seemed to bulge out as a loud explosion went off inside the room, making Jesse jump, recoil, and slam into Aiden, knocking the both of them to the floor.

"Ah. T-that would be Ivor's enchanting room," Aiden said in a rather timid voice, rubbing his head. "H-he's... well, he's always b-brewing potions experimentally. So this happens quite a lot."

"What, the explosions?"

"Yes. He's either trying to enchant something and the enchantment doesn't take, or he's brewing potions for our use. Most of the time nowadays it's the former option, though," Aiden said, rubbing his head from where it had collided with the floor.

It was as if someone had triggered a chain reaction in Jesse's head, and she looked at Aiden, emerald green eyes sharpening. "Where are you keeping my sword and flint and steel, by the way?"

Aiden flinched again, and Jesse could've happily facepalmed. "I'm not going to hurt you, you know..." she murmured.

"Um... I-Ivor's keeping it in a chest in the enchanting room," Aiden said, shrinking back even more from the black-haired girl. "I-it's the one on the left of the door when you turn around to exit."

Jesse paused, before pushing open the door and going inside. Aiden squeaked in fear when he saw what he was doing, but she was already inside.

Ivor looked up from his brewing station, ashes decorating his hair. He looked like he had a rather bad case of dandruff, and as he straightened up quite a few of the ashes came dusting off of his head. "Jesse? What are you doing in here?" he asked, straightening up, before his already-dark-blue eyes darkened even further. "Wait, let me guess, you're here to find your sword so you can kill us all."

Jesse blinked. "That was... oddly dark and pessimistic. First part's correct, second is not." Turning around, she rummaged around in the chest and pulled out her sword and then her flint and steel, which glowed with a faint warmth. Tucking it into her pocket quietly for safekeeping, she pivoted on her heel and held the enchanted sword out to Ivor, hilt up. Ivor flinched a bit, jumping backwards, and then proceeded to stumble over a Blaze Rod that he'd dropped and land on his butt harshly with a wince and a yelp.

Jesse let the arm holding the sword drop, rubbing her forehead. She could feel a headache coming on... "You guys do know I'm not going to hurt you, right?"

Ivor just looked at her warily as Aiden poked his head into the room, shivering from head-to-toe. Jesse was about to extend her left hand to help Ivor up, before realizing that was the hand holding the sword and she was pretty sure Ivor did not want a blade in his hand, so she switched her hand so that she was holding out her right hand. Ivor looked at it for a minute and then took it, the slightly-shorter girl tugging him to his feet and holding out the sword. "Can I ask you a question?"

Even though he still looked incredibly nervous, Ivor's lips twitched. "You- ah- you just did."

Jesse blinked, before rolling her eyes with a slight smile. "Ah. True. In that case, may I ask three questions?" she asked,

Ivor blinked, before a smirk crossed his face. "... clever. Ask away."

"Is there a way to strengthen the enchantment on this?" And she held the hilt out to Ivor again.

Ivor looked at the sword, before cautiously taking ahold of it and carrying it over to the enchanting table. Setting it down, he touched one hand to the glowing blade, flipping open an enchanting book as he did so. His eyebrow rose higher and higher, until he looked rather surprised. He glanced up at Jesse from where he was still kneeling, one hand pressing the book open and the other resting on the sword. "This easily has the most powerful enchantments on it that I've ever seen. Why do you want to strengthen it?"

Jesse hesitated. "Well... this was the sword I used to defeat the Witherstorm."

Ivor's eyes widened. "The enchantment was apparently lessened, according to... well... my Ivor," Jesse said, hesitantly. "So... if the enchantment can be weakened..."

"Yes, I see where you're getting it. Well, these enchantments are almost at the most powerful stage it can be at, but I can try to look into it," Ivor said, returning his gaze to the enchanting book.

"Well, since this was enchanted with the power of the Command Block... wouldn't it be better to use notes _on_ the Command Block for reference?" Jesse pointed out, as Ivor picked the enchanting book off the table, one finger keeping the page there as he grabbed books off the shelves.

"Well, yes, but..."

Jesse internally sighed at that word. 'But' never was a good sign. "But... what?"

"Well... the only person who might HAVE that sort of notes would be..." Ivor trailed off, he and Aiden sharing a look. Jesse felt rather stupid with all the inside references these guys were giving each other, but it took her a minute to remember who'd had the block before Ivor. All three of them chorused the name quietly.

"Soren."

 **A/N: Yep! This chappie's up :3**

 **Go vote on the poll on my profile. I will literally remind you of this every single chapter I post up on all of my stories until enough people vote.**

 **NoItsBecky: Thank you!**

 **KaosRuin: It was originally Scorching Streaks of Paint's, but I adopted it**

 **Scorching Streaks of Paint: Yep!**

 **rebekahtpe: Salad. I hate pork. And... nice animal imitations?**

 **A Person: Lol xD**

 **SquiddytheBlaze: Lol xD Hmmm. It'd be something like this: "Life is like a bedtime story, and we are the children who the story is being read to. Dying is like the story ending: we are the children who never want to go to bed. We never want the story to end."**

 **RapidSammi: Oh gosh xD What did you do...?**

 **GuestPerson13: Lol! Hello! And not really :) Thank you for being concerned, though :3**

 **x.X. A.L. X.x**


	10. Chapter 10

Jesse's hand hovered above the door.

Behind this door, was this world's very temperamental jerk, Soren.

Not that she was going to say that to his face...

Slowly, she moved her hand to tap the door quietly.

It flew open violently on the first tap.

Good thing Jesse had good reflexes; or else Jesse would've gotten a broken nose. As it was, her right forearm was going to have a _massive_ bruise on it for weeks.

Soren was glaring at the black-haired girl that would've made anyone else (ahem, looking at Aiden here...) quail but just made Jesse blink at him, her arm raised in a blocking motion, his hand splayed on the door.

"What. Are. You. Doing. Out. Of. The. Cell?" He asked, his teeth gritted together as he glowered at her, pale blue eyes seething with rage. Lukas's anger was cold and icy and, honestly, a little predictable. Soren was hot and furious and wildly out of control.

"... uhhh coming to talk to you?" Jesse asked, slowly.

What? What else was she supposed to say?

Soren stared at her, eyes still blazing with anger, before slamming the door so harshly that the entire wall actually rattled. Something inside the room shattered.

Jesse would've happily left at this point, except that she needed to ask him for notes on the Command Block (if he had them)...

"... do you have notes on the Command Block?" she asked, finally, through the door. If he wasn't going to be nice, she should at least try to get what she'd come here for.

"... yes. But there's no way in-" Jesse learned quite a few, new, creative swears from the ginger builder "- that I'll give them to you."

"... well I'll stay in the hallway until you do, because we need the notes."

"Who's 'we'?"

"Ivor and me. We... have an idea to defeat the Witherstorm."

Soren snorted derisively. "Likely story. You're just wanting the notes to boost that _storm's_ strength."

...

 _... gosh he's stubborn..._

"Well, I'll wait in the hallway, then." And Jesse backed up until her back hit the wall, and then slowly slid down so that she was sitting there, hands on her knees as she waited patiently.

There was a silence. Then- "Are you still there?"

"Yeah."

More silence. Jesse rubbed the bruise that was forming on her right arm, the silence growing heavy and awkward. She decided to break it. "Um... How did I try... to defeat the Witherstorm, here?"

More silence. Jesse was about to repeat the question when the answer came back quietly. "Jesse came to me and asked for the Formidi-Bomb. I gave it to her so we could blow up the storm and I could get back to watching the Endermen. It didn't work. It blew apart, but then she went to go help the survivors and then came back controlling the Witherstorm. I don't know what happened." Soren's voice was quiet and rather irritated, but at least he wasn't snapping or shouting at her. So... that was something, right?

"Uhm... did you defeat the Ender Dragon in this world?"

"... what do you think the answer is?" The question was asked so bitterly that Jesse winced a little and went back to rubbing the bruise on her arm. "Sorry."

More silence.

"You're still there?"

"Yeah."

"... you're annoying."

Jesse chuckled at that. "I have been told that by many people, and no doubt I'll hear that many more times. It doesn't bother me at all, Soren."

Quiet grumbling behind the door, before another silence fell. "... do you want to play a game or something?"

Jesse blinked. "What?"

"Well, if you're going to sit in the hallway and annoy me, we might as well play a game..." Soren sounded grouchy, and his tone showed that he really did not want to play a game.

Jesse knew that there were times you had to push the limits as far as you possibly could, and other times you should back down. She could sense that she should probably back down.

She decided to keep pushing, logically.

"Oh... sure..."

More grumbling, before Jesse leaned her head against the wall. "So what do you want to play?"

"I don't care..."

"How about Truth or Truth?"

"... what the hell is 'Truth or Truth'?"

"It's Truth or Dare, without the dares. I think I'm annoying you enough without dares."

"... fine."

Jesse thought for a moment. "Uhm... then... how close were you and Ellegaard?"

More silence. Jesse thought maybe she should book it out of there, when another quiet answer came back, sounding faintly less irritated this time. "We were... very close. Not as close as me or Ivor, or maybe Magnus and Ellegaard were... but we were close." Short silence this time. "Why are you so nice?"

Jesse thought about that for a minute. "... do you know what I hate sometimes? I hate that I'm always the nice girl. I hate that I'm always the one who's nice to the people who hate her guts. I'm the one who cares about people. Once I start caring about you, I will care about you forever. Sometimes, I wish I wasn't that nice person. I wish I could just not care." She paused for a moment, still thinking. "But then I look at the friends I've made, and the people I've met... and then I decide I don't really care about not caring."

Another silence. "Being too nice is dangerous. You have to show your mean side every once in a while." Soren sounded even less irritated than before.

Jesse let her eyes drift shut. "Once in a while... how long until 'once in a while' turns into 'all the time'?" she murmured musingly.

There was no answer to her question, and silence reigned in the hallway for a short time.

The creaking of a door. Jesse opened her eyes.

Soren was standing in the doorway, holding a sheaf of papers. He simply dropped them onto the floor. "Here." And he turned around, Jesse catching the hint of a sparkle in his eyes, and then the door shut again.

Jesse looked at the papers, which had scattered slightly upon slamming onto the floor. Crawling forward, she scooped up the papers, knocking them together, before standing up, hugging the notes to her chest. "Thank you."

There was no answer.

Jesse took a deep breath, before turning around and running down the hallway.

This hallway was very dusty. She had a piece or two in her eye. Or three. Or... well... maybe some water.

In this room, Soren's back was against the door, his head hanging slightly, a shadow over his eyes.

He tried to ignore the pressing feeling against the back of his eyes. Or the wetness in his eyes.

Why was he crying?

 **A/N: ... aww. I think the both of each other managed to overload each other with sappiness and sweetness. Well, actually, Jesse did and it overflowed onto her. Soren just got most of it. xD**

 **rebekahtpe: Ehh the first option? I don't know...**

 **NoItsBecky: (shrugs)**

 **Scorching Streaks of Paint: Well, it makes sense, tho... xD**

 **x.X. A.L. X.x.**


	11. Chapter 11

Upon receiving the notes, Ivor had shooed Jesse out of the room so he could read through them all by himself. He concentrated better alone, apparently. So that left Jesse with literally nothing to do.

Well, except maybe go wander around the bunker a bit more...

...

Eh, why not.

So now she was trotting through the endless hallways, hands in her pockets. She was about ninety-nine percent these hallways were endless by now, since she'd been walking for ten minutes and had seen absolutely nobody in that space of time.

Her foot caught on something, and she pitched forward. Letting out a loud yelp, Jesse barely managed to stab her hands out in time, but even doing so her palms stung angrily. She knelt there on her hands and knees, before looking over to see what had tripped he-

Her stomach plummeted as she saw what she'd tripped on.

Reuben was looking at Jesse indignantly from where he was under her legs, with those pale brown eyes she knew so well and had missed so much.

"S-sorry," and she pulled her feet off the small pink pig, who kept staring at her with those big pale brown eyes.

Jesse felt something building up in the back of her eyes, and her vision started to blur. She would've tried to get up and move away so that her heart didn't have to break all over when she had to go back home, but for some reason her limbs were frozen where they were. "H-hey, buddy..." Her throat was tight and suddenly very dry. She wasn't sure how she hadn't noticed it before.

Reuben oinked, his indignant look fading to one of slight concern. Jesse reached out and began to fondle his ears, the little pink pig making a familiar sort of humming sound in his throat, butting his head into her hand, which had started trembling as hot tears began to build up in her eyes. She flipped over slowly, so that her hand was still resting on his head, but now her back was pressed to the wall and her lips were pressed together tightly as she tried to stop the tears. "Hey, buddy," she repeated, quietly.

Reuben let out a soft oink now, because Jesse was squeezing her eyes shut to stop the flow of tears. Her eyes were shiny when she blinked and her vision was getting blurrier by the blink.

Notch _damn_ it all, what was it about this world that made her want to cry?

A soft weight sank into her lap, and she opened her eyes again to see this scarred, tough little Reuben sitting in her lap, looking at her with actual concern now.

Jesse's hand moved shakily, touching his ears again, touching _Reuben_ , because she hadn't been able to see him or touch him or pat him for so _long_ and now she was definitely crying, tears pouring down her cheeks and a soft hiccup building up in her throat, shaking her shoulders slightly with each hitched breath.

Slowly, her arms moved so that she was hugging Reuben as tightly as she dared, the little pink pig making a funny snuffling sound as he nuzzled into her shoulder. This just made it worse, and Jesse screwed her face up to stop the further flow of tears, but it didn't work and after a few seconds she just stopped trying, drawing her knees up and tightening her grip around Reuben, because he was _here_ , he was still _here_ in this world and this Jesse had just given him up and she was definitely starting to sob a little bit, no matter how hard she tried to stop it.

"H-hey, you alright?"

Jesse sniffed, swiping the back of her hand across her eyes and looking to see who had spoken. It was Magnus, who was blinking at the black-haired girl in actual concern. Petra or Aiden or Lukas must've alerted the others that she was allowed out by now, because he didn't ask her what she was doing out of her cell.

"Yes. No. I don't know," Jesse responded, feeling more tears spill down her cheeks, and then mopping at her face with her sleeve again.

A short silence, and then Magnus sat next to her as she hugged Reuben, who snuffled a bit again. "Did something happen to your Reuben back in your world, then?" he asked, blinking at her in concern as she kept trying to wipe away the tears and not doing the best job.

Jesse said nothing. Her grip just tightened slightly. Magnus spotted and scooted away, wincing a bit. "Ah, sorry... I won't ask." He was shifting awkwardly, and it was pretty clear that he wanted to move away now.

Reuben nudged Jesse's shoulder, and Jesse fondled his ears slightly.

"I think Jesse used to do that," Magnus said, and then when Jesse glanced at him he winced and elaborated, "you know. Play with Reuben's ears."

"... She's lucky."

Magnus blinked at her. Jesse was staring at the opposite wall now, completely deadpan. Tears were still spilling over, but it seemed almost as if she'd turned off her emotions somehow. "She still has her friends. She still has Reuben." Her eyes narrowed slightly, brow furrowing. "I don't know why any version of me would ever give that up."

Magnus was quiet as he looked back at his knees. "Oh... I don't know why either..." he said, voice getting softer.

Jesse looked at him for a minute, still playing with Reuben's ears, before asking mildly, "Well, how are you?"

"What? Oh... okay, I guess. Why?"

Jesse thought about that, before shrugging again. "I don't know. I guess... I just... you and Ellegaard... seemed to be closer than mine, from your reaction when I mentioned her name earlier."

Magnus winced at the mention of Ellegaard's name. "... I guess we were pretty close. She got that I liked to be pretty quiet," he said, quietly, before rolling his eyes a little, trying to muster up a smile and managing more of a grimace. "Not that she ever got my _lovely_ sense of humor..."

Jesse chuckled a bit, before looking at her knees. "... losing someone is always the hardest thing," she said quietly, hugging Reuben a little more, "the pain stops, there are new people... but there's a little hole where they used to be, just that shape. Nothing else can fit it properly. It's like putting a key into the wrong lock." Her shoulders began to tremble again. "I don't like saying goodbyes."

"... neither do I, kid." Magnus leaned back a little so that his back was pressing against the wall, his eyes drifting shut.

"I don't think anybody does."

 **A/N: god (not talking about capital G God here)dammit, why do I want to write sad chapters?!**

 **Well, next chapter and the chapter after will be (hopefully) less depressing for me to write.**

 **Please vote on the poll on my profile! It'll take a minute.**

 **Destiny: I agree totally xD**

 **NoItsBecky: Thanks friend! xD**

 **RapidSammi: :3 back to you too**

 **rebekahtpe: Hmmm I'd say B. Just because I don't like it as much as I like other letters xD**

 **Scorching Streaks of Paint: Yep xD I feel like this is a weird bunker version of Undertale/Underfell xD**

 **x.X. A.L. X.x.**


	12. Chapter 12

Magnus and Jesse had sat there for another five minutes, Magnus doing his best to lighten the mood slightly with his incredibly snarky sense of humor, before Magnus had finally gotten up, excusing himself, and then gone off to do... whatever he'd been planning to do when he'd stumbled upon Jesse. Jesse followed suit another five minutes later.

Still holding Reuben, of course.

She knew that once she left, she was going to have to let Reuben go again. She also knew that when that happened, she'd start crying her eyes out.

She'd burn that bridge when it came to it.

Anyway, now she was wandering the hallways again, still hugging Reuben to her chest, the little pink pig snuffling contentedly from where he was, before she came to another room.

Gabriel was leaning his head onto his hand, eyes glazed over as Olivia talked about something redstone-oriented. Jesse resisted smiling- this Olivia really wasn't that different from hers, after all- and cleared her throat slightly.

Both sets of eyes flicked over to Jesse, who carefully extracted one arm from the hug Reuben was ensnared in, and rubbed her head sheepishly. "Ah... could I come in?" she asked, sheepishly.

Gabriel and Olivia shared a glance, before Olivia shrugged and sat back, one foot kicking out and snaring a chair, dragging it out so that someone could sit in it. "Sure, if you really want to."

Her tone practically dripped with sarcasm. Jesse felt as though she was basically challenging her, for some reason- it wasn't as if asking if she could come in and listen was a challenge. Unless, of course, here it was and was the verbal equivalent of swords at ten paces.

"Okay." And walking in, Jesse lowered herself into the chair, setting Reuben on the table. The pink pig snuffled again and nudged her hand with his snout, looking at her expectantly. Rolling her eyes inwardly, she smiled and reached out, beginning to fondle his ears.

Reuben made a sound that sounded _remarkably_ like a purring cat. It was a familiar sound that made Jesse grin.

Olivia looked at Jesse appraisingly for a minute before leaning back and starting to talk at a million miles an hour about redstone, Ellegaard, Redstonia... they were things Jesse had definitely heard Olivia rant about before and they were things she was going to hear the dark-skinned engineer talk about for ages after this.

Jesse had no way of measuring time, but the redstone engineer finally slowed her roll. Gabriel had actually fallen _asleep_ by now, and even Reuben looked a bit bored, but Jesse had listened pretty intently.

Mind you, she didn't understand _half_ of what Olivia had said, knowing how fast the dark-skinned girl could talk, but she'd gotten a general gist of it.

Olivia looked faintly pleased to see that Jesse was still paying attention. "I didn't know you liked redstone," she said, in a much less sarcastic tone before. Actually, she sounded a little mild.

Jesse stifled a grin. Softies, all of them.

"Well... I mean, I don't _much_ , but my Olivia talks about redstone and the like a lot as well. I think I might even know how to do crap now. Although, the most advanced thing the two of us have ever done is figure out how a flying machine worked and then repairing it. It was actually kind of funny, because Soren was petrified about flying on it," and a grin came over her face as she remembered that, "and Gabriel joked about it the whole time."

Gabriel had jolted awake at the sound of his name. "What?" he asked, a bit sleepily. Jesse giggled, and to her slight surprise, she heard a similar sound being mirrored by Olivia. She looked over at the engineer, who was clearing her throat sheepishly.

"Nothing. You can go back to sleep," Jesse told the warrior.

He squinted at her for a minute before sitting up, leaning one cheek onto his hand. "Never mind, if I'm up I might as well stay up."

"Oh, well... alright then," Jesse said, feeling faintly surprised by this. "Are you sure?"

"Sure," Gabriel said, rather lazily.

"Our Warrior here really doesn't like to actually fight," Olivia said, shooting said warrior a bit of a glare, "he's never actually _said_ it aloud, but I think he thinks that it's a waste of time."

Gabriel grunted, not confirming or denying the fact. Jesse shrugged and sat back in her chair, still fondling Reuben's ears peacefully. "Well, nothing wrong with not fighting, really. I mean, it's a nuisance when you're in the heat of a battle, but..." She trailed off, before shrugging sheepishly. "I mean, there's really nothing wrong with it."

Gabriel looked at Jesse for a minute, his gaze slightly hooded. "I get the feeling that you get along with quite a lot of people," he said, abruptly, but still in a quiet voice.

Jesse paused at this, before raising her shoulders in a shrug. "I mean... well, I try. I don't think Lukas likes me very much. This one, I mean," she said quickly, "and I'm pretty sure Aiden's scared of me."

Olivia snorted. "Both complete understatements."

Jesse shrugged again, still playing with Reuben's ears. "I guess it's not as bad as it could be. We could be in a much more dangerous situation and they don't like me, I guess."

"How in the world could this situation be more dangerous?"

"There are multiple ways that I do not really want to discuss," Jesse responded a bit flatly.

The door banged open, and everyone looked over simultaneously to see that Axel was standing in the doorway, blinking a bit. "Oh... hi, I guess." Glancing at the others, he said, "Ivor said he wants everyone to come to the potion room. He said it's important."

"Now?" Gabriel asked, making no move to get up.

Axel rolled his eyes. "I don't think he would've asked if he meant tomorrow morning."

Gabriel gave a long-suffering sort of sigh and got up, walking past the burly boy, and darting down the hallway.

Olivia glanced at Jesse. "C'mon, then," she said, in an almost friendly way.

Jesse stood up, scooping Reuben up into a hug, and then following the other two as they left the room.

Time to go see if Ivor had figured anything out.

 **A/N: Ooooh this is gonna be fun (evil grin)**

 **Please vote on the poll on my profile! It will take, like, three minutes. x3 Nah just kidding, it takes thirty seconds.**

 **RapidSammi: Lol sorry xD**

 **rebekahtpe: Ahh.. Reuben. I could put him in a small room and pump poison gas so that he dies quickly and painlessly. The life of everyone else is much more important.**

 **x.X. A.L. X.x**


	13. Chapter 13

Ivor was holding Jesse's sword by the hilt when they all came in. Olivia shut the door, and everyone stood there, waiting for Ivor to speak.

Ivor waited for a moment, making sure everyone was paying attention to him, before saying, in a light, casual tone, "So, earlier today, Jesse- not our Jesse, mind you, that one- came to me and asked me if there was a possibility of reinforcing this sword."

"Why?"

The blunt retaliation was from Lukas. Honestly, Jesse wasn't all that

"Maybe if you didn't interrupt, blondie, I could get to it," Ivor said, sarcastically. Jesse made sure to keep her grin covered, Reuben standing next to Jesse carefully and glancing up at the black-haired girl.

"Anyway, apparently this is the same sword that this Jesse used to defeat the Witherstorm."

A ripple of interest spread through the small group at this. Gabriel had actually straightened up, and Lukas's scowl had faded to a more interested look.

"It was enchanted with the power of the Command Block. Now, when she used it to smash the Command Block, the enchantments lowered a bit, so it was up to me to try to figure out how to get it back up to the levels it was at earlier. Thankfully, Jesse got the Command Block notes from Soren, so I was able to figure out a solution much more quickly than if I had just attempted to blunder through it." He jerked his head at Jesse, who bowed slightly and a bit sarcastically.

"So, with a few potions and enchantments, I managed to up the enchantment back to about where I think it would've been," Ivor continued, putting the sword down. The glow it had was more of a miasma now, glowing purple and green and blue and red and purple again.

"So we have a weapon to defeat it," Lukas said, bluntly once again, "what use is it going to do? We can't exactly just charge right up to it."

"That's exactly what _I_ did," Jesse pointed out to the blonde, "and it worked, didn't it?"

Lukas huffed sharply at her, scuffing his feet along the floor in a familiar way. "Well, that was sheer luck, then."

"Not really," and Jesse touched her lip with her finger thoughtfully. "We had a lot of Endermen to our advantage then."

"Endermen?" This came not from Lukas, but Soren, whose eyebrow was raised in slight disbelief at the black-haired girl. He was treating her much more mildly, though, which definitely made Jesse feel a bit more confident.

"Yes. Endermen move blocks. And when you move part of the Witherstorm's blocks, it hurts the Witherstorm. Kind of like if someone was poking needles into your skin, you'd feel it, and you'd get annoyed," Jesse explained patiently.

Soren actually swore rather violently at this point. "That would've worked a few weeks ago... but I think the Witherstorm destroyed all the Endermen, or at least most of them."

"Well, we'll just have to figure something else out then," Jesse replied evenly.

"Hang on," and Jesse glanced at Lukas, whose cold blue eyes had gone even colder. "You think we're going to try to _attack_ that thing? Head on?"

"Of course. Would you rather I just sit in here for the rest of your lives twiddling your thumbs?"

"That," Lukas's eyes had gone so cold they were literally glacial, "is the _stupidest_ thing I've ever heard. If you think we're going to risk our lives and probably fail in the attempt in order to defeat this thing-"

"I'm sorry, I should've phrased that differently or more specifically," Jesse interrupted, crossing her arms. "Or maybe you should've paid attention, blondie. Lukas, I said, would you rather _I_ just sit in here? You don't have to come. None of you even have to raise a finger. I'm going to get rid of it."

There was definitely a rumble of shock at this. Axel and Olivia exchanged surprised looks, Petra's eyebrows shot up, Gabriel had actually stood up properly, Soren and Magnus were sharing this odd look between them, Ivor and Aiden's mouths were gaping open, and Reuben had let out a squeal of protest and surprise.

Lukas's eyes widened fractionally, just for a moment, before they narrowed again. "You think we're going to trust you to go back to the Witherstorm? What if you're helping the Witherstorm? What if you're really _our_ Jesse? You may have fooled everyone else, but you haven't-"

"I'm sorry," Jesse shot back immediately, feeling irritation swell up inside her, "because I've been trying my damndest to help. But, by all means, if you'd like, come along! You get to get PTSD, which I think I already have from the FIRST time I went into the Witherstorm. What fun!" Her voice dripped with sarcasm. "Look," she said after a second, in a kinder tone, "I see why you're suspicious. Trust me, I get it. But if you wait to be certain of the outcome, or wait for ages and ages to see if someone's trustworthy, you're not going to get anywhere. You get places by taking risks. Some of those risks are going to be the wrong risks, and that's unavoidable."

She crossed her arms. "But I didn't get rid of the Witherstorm the first time around without taking risks."

There was a silence, before Lukas sighed. "Fine. You can go try to take that Witherstorm down. But I'm going to come with you. If anyone's going to keep an eye on you, it's going to me."

There was a soft cough, and everyone looked at Petra, who scowled as she scuffed her foot along the floor. "Well, I want to go rip that Witherstorm to pieces, so I'm coming," she said brusquely.

Axel shrugged, his dark gray eyes sparking. "Yeah. I'll come too. I think when we get there, I'm going to rip the Witherstorm into little pieces and then throw them into a lake."

"Why a lake? Wouldn't it make more sense to throw it into a pool of lava?" Olivia pointed out.

"... shut up."

"Anyway, I might as well. The more people there are the less chance something will go wrong."

Aiden coughed and raised his hand when everyone looked at him. He was trembling like a leaf. "Um... I-I'll come too," he said, celery-green eyes going a shade paler out of nerves. "It... it might be... I mean... I might be able to help," he whispered.

Ivor started running around the room, actually _tossing the sword_ at Jesse, making the raven-haired girl dive sideways as it impaled the floor. "Great, I'll make potions and stuff," he said, starting to literally dig stuff out of chests. "I don't think I can come right away; but I'll do my best to help!"

Soren muttered a vague sort of agreement, and Gabriel just sort of shrugged. Magnus eked out a soft agreement, and Reuben nudged her leg encouragingly.

Jesse smiled down at Reuben. "Ah. Haha... _no._ " Scooping up the pig, she went over to Gill and held him out. "You are in charge of making sure that this little guy does not follow us, okay?"

Gill blinked as he caught ahold of the pig, who whined in protest. "Ah- okay, sure. But why?"

"Long story that I am _not_ explaining," Jesse responded, more bluntly than before.

Maya cleared her throat, making everyone look at the brunette. "Um... well, if we're going to go, Ivor's going to need time to make his potions, so... should we go to sleep?"

There was a short silence, and then a general agreement in the room.

Jesse was both flooded with dread at this, and completely prepared to do anything she had to do to defeat the Witherstorm.

Again.

 **A/N: OOOOHHH EXCITEMENT**

 **And yeah, haha, you ain't coming with us Reuben.**

 **NoItsBecky: I'm not obsessed... like honestly I'm pretty upset when he died, and Jesse is as well (understandably, because it's her _pet)_ so whenever I write something about Reuben I'm trying to write it around Jesse's POV.**

 **Scorching Streaks of Paint: Lol I'm glad you liked it xD**

 **rebekahtpe: Agreed. And a door. Privacy please!**

 **RapidSammi: Ah... xD Hahaha...**

 **angelwings: Oh. Huh. Nice. Thanks, friend!**

 **x.X. A.L. X.x.**


	14. Chapter 14

They were all about to leave, when Jesse stalled midstride. "Oh! Sorry, hang on, I've been wanting to ask something for a bit."

All of them shared a look, before Olivia nodded and waved her hand slightly. "Shoot."

"Petra, Gabriel, how are you... normal?" Jesse vaguely gestured at them, hoping that they didn't take offense at the question or anything. "Shouldn't Gabriel not even remember who he is and Petra be dying of Wither Sickness?"

"Milk."

Jesse blinked at that very much out-of-the-blue, one-word statement. "What?"

Petra sighed a bit at the prospect of further explaining it. "Wither Sickness can be healed by milk. Ivor managed, by using a little bit of milk and a healing potion, to make a potion that pretty much got rid of the Wither Sickness," she responded pretty flatly.

"... oh." Well, what else did you expect Jesse to say to that?

"Yeah. Now is that it? Or can I leave now?" Her brow creased a bit with irritation. Jesse felt like it wouldn't be exactly the best course of action to keep pressing Petra, so she nodded and gestured vaguely at the redhead. "Sure. Sorry," she added as an afterthought.

Petra's scowl lightened a bit, and after a vague shrug, she tramped out of the room.

"We let Gabriel try to recover as many of his own memories as we could," Magnus picked up, making the black-haired girl swivel to look at the Rogue. "He developed his own personality as we let him recover them... so..." he looked at the warrior, who arched his eyebrow at Magnus, before vaguely gesturing at him. "Yeah."

Jesse blinked at the Warrior, who arched his eyebrow slightly at Jesse, a faint sort of odd smile on his face. "Oh. That makes sense, I guess."

"If you're going to ask a question," and Jesse looked to Lukas, whose brow was creased slightly. "Then may I ask one as well?"

He spoke in a vaguely polite voice. It still sounded a little chilly, but Jesse could handle whatever he threw at her... well, at least, she was pretty sure she could.

"Sure, go ahead," she said, wondering what he was going to ask.

Lukas jerked his head slightly, eyes narrowing at the black-haired girl. "Why do you look so wary when it comes to Reuben? This one, I mean."

Jesse went still, her mind racing as her green eyes widened.

Did she really want to explain that?

... not really.

To explain that would be to talk about her Reuben. _Her_ Reuben.

It would also be to explain how his death had been her fault.

"Th... that's..."

Lukas arched his eyebrow, waiting for the girl to finish the sentence.

"I'd prefer not to talk about it," Jesse said, her voice growing quieter and rather soft and small and scared.

"Why not? If we answered your questions, you are almost obligated to answer ours," Lukas shot back. The fact that he was right didn't make Jesse want to tell him any more.

"It's personal..." Jesse was doing her best not to glance in Reuben's direction.

Lukas stepped towards her, the girl who'd already been stressed and terrified and confused today to the point where those emotions still bubbled dangerously close to the surface. "So is asking about Wither Sickness and amnesia about people you don't really know from where _you_ come from. So why can't we do something similar, when it involves _our_ Reuben?"

"Th-that's..." Jesse's chest was starting to hurt. Her vision was starting to blur, and those emotions were getting even closer to the surface, reaching almost boiling point, like a kettle that's been left on the stove for far too long.

"What could be so bad that you're actively trying to protect him from coming _with_ us? It's not like he can't handle himself or anything; he's a pretty tough one-"

Her emotions exploded.

" ** _HE FUCKING DIED!_** "

Lukas actually jumped back several inches, recoiling as Jesse's voice echoed throughout the room, everyone staring at the black-haired girl, who looked almost deranged in that moment as she stood there, fists clenched at her sides, nails digging painfully into her palms, trembling like a leaf.

" _He came **with** me into the Witherstorm, and then I dropped this **stupid** fucking sword," _ and she was starting to hyperventilate rather violently now, _"and then Reuben got it for me, and then he got higher up, and then he slipped because I couldn't **fucking** help him in time, and then he **fucking** **died**!_ " Her voice, which had been rising in pitch and volume with every word she spoke, grated against their ears in a terrible shriek, eyes gleaming with tears.

She was silent for a full minute, trying to get herself under control and failing miserably. When she spoke again, her teeth were clenched together so tightly she was surprised her teeth didn't break under the pressure. "Do you _know_ what it's like to see him again and know that I'm going to have to fucking _leave_ him here? The least I can do," and she spun on her heel, trying to keep the tears under control and failing as they poured down her cheeks, "is make sure that he won't _die_ **_again_**!"

There was a shocked sort of silence in the room as Jesse stalked to the door, hand strangling the doorknob. "I'll see you in the morning. I-" Voice cracked. It took her a minute to regain her composure. "I'll see you in the morning."

She didn't really mean to slam the door, but when she shut it she realized that it would be what one would effectively call 'slamming the door'.

She wasn't sure that she really cared.

 **A/N: ... this slightly shorter than usual chapter stemmed from me just mainly trying to answer NoItsBecky's question. And then it snowballed, and we get this emotional mess.**

 **rebekahtpe: Yep. Creative arts.**

 **NoItsBecky: Your question has been answered. You also got this emotional mess of a chapter xD**

 **RapidSammi: Eyyy thanks**

 **x.X. A.L. X.x.**


	15. Chapter 15

Jesse was lost again.

She'd been so completely upset that she'd gone storming off, and by the time she'd realized the fact she was somewhere in the middle of the bunker, with no idea how she'd gotten there.

 _Drip. Drip._

The sound of water hitting the floor was audible in this utter silence, the only other sound being Jesse's soft, ragged breathing. A breeze was coming in, because it was hitting Jesse's wet face.

Jesse looked down, fingers reaching up slowly, touching her cheeks, even as something wet dripped off her chin.

 _Drip._

Jesse looked at the trail of tear drops she'd been leaving behind her. The small droplets were far, and few, but...

Well, they led somewhere, right?

She turned back around, trotting after it, keeping her eyes riveted on the floor, feeling even more tears cascade out of her eyes.

 _Drip._

She hadn't exploded in a long time.

 _Drip._

She hadn't had the luxury.

 _Drip._

She always had to watch her friends. She always had to make sure her friends were okay. She was always the one in charge of everything. She couldn't explode when they were relying on her. If she did explode, it was in controlled bursts, or during fighting.

 _Drip._

She supposed she hadn't been able to keep it under control anymore.

 _Drip. CLONK!_

"O-ow?!" Jesse stumbled back a bit, hands automatically grabbing at her now throbbing forehead.

"Oh! Jesse, there you are," and Aiden looked supremely startled to see the black-haired girl in front of him. His voice quavered but Jesse didn't really notice.

"Ah... hi, Aiden," she said warily, lowering her hands again, ignoring the rhythmic thudding of her heart and her forehead that were going in perfect sync.

Aiden rubbed his head sheepishly at that, chuckling slightly, before leaning back and calling, "H-hey! I found her!"

Lukas came around the corner a second later, followed by pretty much everyone who'd been present in the room during Jesse's explosion.

Jesse felt her throat close up. "Oh." A pause that felt like it lasted for an eternity. "Hi."

Lukas, to his credit, looked faintly awkward as Ivor came forward, fumbling in his bag. "H-here," and he handed her a bottle of something clear after uncorking it, being careful not to spill any of it on the floor. It looked like water, but if Jesse had been in any temper to really look at it, she could see the faint swirls of blue in the clear mixture.

Jesse didn't bother to look, though- she just raised it and swallowed the whole thing in a few gulps. Immediately, she felt tension go out of her shoulders and her entire body relaxed, the strange feeling in her throat also releasing. "Ah..." she mumbled, glancing at Lukas, "what do you want?"

That should've come out in a more strict manner, or at least annoyed, but Jesse sounded oddly serene and light. The black-haired girl looked at the bottle for a moment. "... was that a calming potion?" she asked, voice still mild and light.

"Yes... you looked like you needed one," Ivor said, wincing slightly and shuffling his feet.

"Oh. Okay," and Jesse leaned down to set the bottle on the ground lightly, the glass clinking gently on the floor, before straightening up and looking at them with that mild look. "Did you need something, then?"

"Yeah, Lukas wanted to say something," and Petra's elbow stabbed into Lukas's side, making the blonde let out an involuntary gasp as he doubled over, coughing and spluttering, " _didn't_ you, Lukas?" Her voice was as light as Jesse had ever heard it, yet somehow managed to promise an incredibly painful and gruesome death if Lukas didn't comply.

Lukas managed, wheezing slightly, "Ah... I... I was going to say," another cough, "Sorry." He didn't elaborate, but deteriorated into uncomfortably waving one hand in Jesse's direction.

Reuben oinked slightly from where he was standing, nudging his head against Jesse's leg.

"Oh." Another pause. "Okay then. I accept your apology. Is that it?" Jesse still sounded incredibly mild, her tears having had stopped as well. Her tears were still wet, though, and tears continued dripping off her chin.

Lukas hesitated. "... yeah." He looked like he might want to say something else, but he didn't elaborate. Jesse waited for him to continue, but when he didn't, she just looked back at the others. "Let's just go to sleep. We have a crucial day ahead of us tomorrow."

"Ah..." everyone looked at each other. Everyone looked as though they really wanted to say something else, but no one was actually stepping up to say anything. "... okay."

* * *

If Ivor could invent an anti-dream potion, Jesse would've loved it and taken it every night of her life.

The first nightmare that came was the usual- Jesse was back in the Witherstorm, swinging the sword at the Command Block, missing, and the sword clattering to the ground. Reuben trotted over to it, picking it up in his mouth, squealing.

 _No!_ Jesse wanted to scream, _stay! Don't come up here! It's just a dream, nothing will happen if you don't get the sword for me! Please don't!_ But her vocal cords wouldn't work, couldn't work, frozen in time as they were.

Reuben ignored her mental will and came running up a tentacle to her, Jesse feeling her heart in her throat as the sword met her hand. The tentacle snagged him, and Jesse's hand released of its own will.

Reuben fell, and Jesse squeezed her eyes shut, but it wasn't like that helped- it was a dream. She could see it as well with her eyes shut or open. Reuben fell, Jesse screaming, and Reuben squealing in fear as he fell.

Then the dream changed, and the tentacle ensnaring Jesse loosened, dropping her to the edge of the hole. Jesse bounced, went over- and her fingers snagged the edge of the hole. It was just a dream, but even so, she couldn't bring herself to die to get her out.

Feet tapped. Jesse focused on the pair of shoes tapping towards her intently.

They were _her_ shoes.

Jesse's eyes travelled up the pale blue dungarees, to the red-sleeved-shirt, to the long black hair... and the indigo eyes that glinted through the darkness that shrouded her face, tentacles waving behind her.

A bloody grin came onto _her_ face, and her foot lashed out, kicking Jesse's fingers. Jesse reflexively let go, cringing in reflex, expecting pain to explode in her fingers- and fell.

Her body plummeted from the sky, watching as the pink interior of the Witherstorm disappeared, and _this_ Jesse shrank from sight, blue sky and deadly tentacles trailing in her vision as she fell, her sword slipping from her grip. She thought she could see Lukas and Petra and Ivor in danger on the ground, but they were too far away and she couldn't be sure.

And then she hit the ground.

* * *

Jesse shot up like a rocket, green eyes wide with fear and shock, her heart pounding a million miles an hour, still sure that her bones were shattering and her body was falling.

The calming potion was still in effect, though, because her heart was slowing down already now that she was awake, slowing back to a normal pace, her eyes relaxing, her entire body relaxing slowly until she was just sitting there, staring at the opposite wall, breathing in and out slowly.

She couldn't even scream for herself.

 **A/N: Yes, I updated out of order. I don't have my reference sheet with me, so I decided to get all the chapters up to 15 (except for Tower of Minecraft) so I feel like it's more in order and not all uneven.**

 **I had another plot bunny this morning... but I ain't publishin' that!**

 **Also, TWO THOUSAND VIEWS? Guys I haven't had this story up that long!**

 **NoItsBecky: Lol sorry xD I wanted to incorporate that, and I had nothing else for that chapter, except for sleeping... so I was just like 'fuck why not' xD**

 **rebekahtpe: (shrugs helplessly) Fall Out Boy? And who said they're making an appearance? xD**

 **RapidSammi: Hehe thanks xD**

 **DisAngelisaDevil: Lol xD You speechless?**

 **KaosRuin: Well... it's actually slightly _similar_ , but not quite. Jesse in this world was already different, so you'll have to see how this goes x) And you're really not the only one xD**

 **angelwings: Cool. Thanks!**

 **x.X. A.L. X.x.**


	16. Chapter 16

Jesse was still trying to catch her breath, even though it had already evened out- her lungs still felt as though someone had squashed them, even with the calming potion still suppressing her frightened emotions.

The door eked open, and Jesse looked up to see a silhouette poke its head into the room. One look at the faint light glinting off gold hair, and she knew it was Lukas. Now she had to wonder what Lukas was doing in her room at this Notch-forsaken hour in the morning.

"Hi."

Lukas started for a bit, before he carefully edged into the room and shut the door again, taking a few moments so that the door quietly clicked shut. "... hi."

Jesse gave a lazy wave of the hand to him, the blonde standing in the doorway still. When he didn't move from where he was standing, Jesse added drily, "I don't bite you know."

Lukas rolled his eyes and came further into the room, sitting down on the edge of the bed. "I just wanted to say... I know that I can be overly blunt and sometimes cold."

Jesse raised her eyebrow at him at that, still calm.

Lukas sighed, sounding a bit irritated. "Okay... _really_ cold. And hostile. And I don't really care about other's feelings or making bonds with people."

Jesse was starting to wonder why he'd come in at all if he was just going to tell her this.

Lukas hesitated, before saying in a smaller, quiet voice, "But... I sometimes forget that others aren't... like me. They have friends... bonds with people they care about. They trust people. They have... feelings, I guess. And sometimes when you push too much, those feelings get out of control."

He spoke haltingly, as if the words were awkward for him to speak. He took a deep breath, eyes flitting shut, before continuing, slowly and haltingly like before, "So... I'm sorry. For pushing you too much. I shouldn't have done that. You didn't need all that emotional baggage brought up again." He sighed in irritation and sat back. "Notch damn, this 'apologizing' stuff is hard."

Jesse sat there, her hands clenching on the blankets, looking at Lukas, who looked frustrated with himself.

She'd been able to tell that this Lukas... well, he was cold. Hostile, really, like he'd said.

So the fact that he came in at around... what, midnight, or 3 AM or _something_ , just to apologize to her about making her explode like that, was the most heartfelt thing he really could've done.

All this ran through her head in a matter of seconds, as well as the option of thanking him or teasing him. Teasing him won out, and she smirked at him a little. "Are you getting soft on me, Lukas?" she asked teasingly.

Lukas let out a soft bark of laughter. "Notch forbid."

He'd barely finished the thought when Jesse, driven by an impulse, leaned forward and wrapped her arms around him in a hug, feeling the blonde stiffen up in surprise in her hug. "... thanks, Lukas," she said quietly.

Lukas did not attempt to knock her head off her shoulders. That was a good sign. He also didn't try to push her away. That was also a good sign. He just sat there for a minute, rigid, as if he'd never been hugged before.

Finally, he tapped her arm slightly and grouched softly, "All right, now let go of me before someone comes in and you destroy my reputation completely."

Jesse sniggered at that and sat back on her haunches, releasing the blonde from the hug.

"If you don't mind me asking a question, though...?" Lukas trailed off, eyebrow going up in a question.

"Shoot. Well, don't- don't _literally_ shoot, but, shoot."

Lukas's lips twitched. It looked as though he was about to smile. "Ha-ha. Anyway, what brings you up at 2'o'clock in the morning?"

Jesse hesitated to bring back what she'd been dreaming of minutes before, before shrugging vaguely. "I had a nightmare," she said simply.

"I see. What about, if I might ask?"

"Reuben," Jesse responded shortly, and Lukas put a hand up, perhaps to stall any further explanation about her nightmare. "Ah. Got it."

Getting up off the bed slowly so it didn't creak from the release of weight, he gave the black-haired girl an almost cordial nod. "Well, I'd better get some rest. We have a lot to do tomorrow."

"Cool," and she gave him a thumbs' up.

His lips twitched again at that, before he moved back to the door, shifted it open, and left, the door clicking softly behind him, almost no sound in his wake. He'd always been stealthy, though not nearly as stealthy as Axel could be when he was pranking someone.

Jesse smiled slightly and lay back down in the bed, head resting on the firm pillow, closing her eyes but not quite drifting off to sleep. Her mind was racing away too quickly for that. She thought about Reuben's panicked expression as he plummeted. The putrid, sweet stink of the Witherstorm. The girl's sadistic smile as she stamped on Jesse's fingers, letting the black-haired girl fall to her death. The Command Block sitting on the ceiling, out of reach of the blade in Jesse's hands. The Command Block, sitting on that pedestal of flesh and bone, with those green and red and purple sparks.

The sparks.

Jesse's eyes flew open in shock, realization and a distinct theory shooting through her like a bullet.

"Oh my Notch."

 **A/N: Ooh, what do you think Jesse realized?**

 **Also, people asked for fluff. I delivered. You're welcome. :3**

 **NoItsBecky: A nightmare, I think.**

 **RapidSammi: But you commented xD and thank you, Crispy!**

 **rebekahtpe: Quotev. Don't ask me why. He elaborated here though x3**

 **Kaos Ruin: Here (tosses you a whole skeleton) you can pick and choose xD**

 **DisAngelIsADevil: Hehehe xD**

 **Angelwings: Nice. You too, friend!**

 **SquiddytheBlaze: Ehhh... I don't know xD**

 **Scorching Streaks of Paint: heehee, I know right?**

 **x.X. A.L. X.x**


	17. Chapter 17

Jesse was walking through the field, searching for people that might've survived, before stopping dead in her tracks.

There, in front of her, looking just fine on a pedestal of flesh and bone, was the Command Block.

"No," she said quietly, shaking her head, eyes widening, "that's... that's not possible..."

Reuben and the others were back with Ellegaard and helping the others. She was the only one here.

The Command Block suddenly flickered to life, various colored sparks dancing in the air, a stream of the purple, green, pink, red sparks lazily reaching out and curling around the black-haired girl, the girl shying back.

"No!" she gasped, turning around and preparing to bolt out of there, but the sparks suddenly lifted her off the ground. " _Help!_ " she shouted to her friends, to anyone, struggling in the stream of sparks that was steadily drawing her closer, closer to the Command Block

Nobody came.

Jesse didn't even have time to scream as she hit the Command Block.

* * *

...

Was she dead?

... no, her heart was jackhammering full-force in her chest, she was still alive.

But where was she then?

Jesse's head turned as she looked around in the darkness warily, hands moving so that they clasped at her chest.

A strange dark wisp that was tinged with purple and indigo and the same sparks that the Command Block had sported. She stepped back from it warily.

 _Will you bond with me?_

Jesse blinked as the strange voice whispered in her ear. It wasn't a male voice, or a female voice, or loud, or soft. It was just _there_ , kind of existing, echoing in the darkness.

"What are you?" she asked bluntly, stepping back from it.

 _You know what I am. You're clever._

Jesse shook her head and stepped back again, hands tightening as her emerald-green eyes turned harder than diamonds at the wisp that was the Witherstorm. "No," she said, a little too loudly for the silence, "I won't bond with you."

 _I can see that you don't like this world... why refuse my offer?_

"..." Jesse's head tilted downwards, green eyes staring into the darkness but not seeing it. She was seeing Petra clap her gently on the back when she'd made her first sword, Lukas reluctantly smiling as he handed over the slime ball, Axel and Olivia arguing loudly in the corner of the treehouse while she fondled Reuben's ears.

"You're right, I don't like the world very much. You could even say I hate it," Jesse said quietly, still not seeing the darkness, "but... I can't betray my friends." Her hands tightened even more. "I can't betray my _only_ friends."

 _What if I told you you could become a god?_

Jesse paused, looking back up with a strange look. "What do you mean?"

 _Magic binds every block in this world together and keeps it in the shape that you know. By absorbing a block, you could also absorb the magic in it. The more magic a being gains, the more the being can manipulate the laws of the universe that you're in. By destroying this pathetic world, my host and I would practically be gods._

Jesse looked back to the floor, her resolve wavering.

 _If we were to bond, we would be able to take over this pathetic world. We would be able to manipulate the very laws of the universe. This world would no longer be a thorn in your side._

Her resolve shattered.

"... all right. I'll bond with you," and Jesse looked up at the wisp of the storm, "on one condition."

 _What would that be, my clever friend?_

Jesse almost bristled at the casual use of the word 'friend' but didn't. Now was the poorest time to do so. "If I bond with you, after we've absorbed the magic, I can get my friends back out."

 _But of course. You would be able to do whatever you wished with them._

Jesse took a deep breath and lowered her hands, one of them stretching out to the wisp. "You have a deal."

The wisp convulsed, purple and indigo lightning flashing, before splitting violently into two separate wisps, curling and undulating in the air, before half of it flooded into Jesse, the girl gasping a bit as the flash of something vaguely sweet and bitter and sour all at the same time flooded over her taste buds and then down her throat.

Pain clawed at her hands, her eyes. Jesse reached out and stopped, seeing her hands slowly turning jet black. And her right eye...

She looked at the Witherstorm, which was beginning to grow again, a deep rumble growing through the black abyss, a flash of light from the Witherstorm lighting up the darkness, revealing a flash of light. Jesse turned in time to see a crack appear in something that looked like glass, encasing the both of them, catching a glimpse of the black skin that covered her right eye.

Her glowing, indigo right eye.

The glass shattered.

Jesse blinked, finding herself standing a little in front of the Command Block again. Something had changed.

She was more powerful.

Blocks began flying to the Witherstorm, people's screaming reaching her ears as the huge, black monster began to slowly reconstruct itself, pieces of itself flying back to it.

"Jesse?!"

Jesse turned to see Axel running through the chaos towards her, panic on his expression.

 _Sorry, Axel._

He stopped in his tracks at the sight of the shorter girl, who was staring at him evenly, the Command Block slowly moving back into the Witherstorm's clutches.

"Jesse?" he repeated, more quietly this time, staring at his friend with a concerned expression. He started towards her, but Jesse flung her arm out defensively, a wave of the Command Block's sparks and the Witherstorm's tractor beam flying out. "Get away," she said, faintly appalled at the sharp, cold tone in her voice as the wave hit him, knocking him over and back, the burly boy's eyes raising to Jesse, looking broken and confused at the sight of his best friend.

Jesse turned away, eyes flitting shut slightly, and then slowly walking away.

She'd made her choice.

They'd understand one day.

They had to.

* * *

The black-haired girl bolted upright, her lungs dragging rattling breaths of air in as she stared around her. For a moment, she was confused as to why she didn't hear Axel's snoring or Olivia's tapping or Reuben's snuffling or Lukas's soft breathing or even Petra's tiptoing as she tried to wake everyone up in the noisiest and possibly most violent way possible.

And then she remembered where she was.

She looked at her hands, blacker than the time she'd spilled squid ink all over them.

Something landed on the back of her hand. A drop of water.

She looked up, but all she could see was the inside of the Witherstorm.

There wasn't a leak. This wasn't like the treehouse, where she'd wake up at all odd times of the day to something dripping on her foreh-

The amulet- the Order's amulet- the one she'd kept since the beginning of this whole thing and hadn't let go of at all- flew against a wall and shattered, the five crystals littering the floor with shards of gold around it, a few of the crystals cracked from the force from which she'd thrown it, indigo eye glaring at the shattered mess on the floor malevolently.

Another drop leaked out of her right eye and fell back onto the back of her hand.

 **A/N: I think everyone knows who just made her second appearance in this story...**

 **This story is literally going to break my heart by the time I've finished writing it, lol xD I make things way too depressing in my head while imagining how I want it to end xD**

 **NoItsBecky: Hehehe x3**

 **RapidSammi: Nawww thanks x3**

 **Wisteria light: Here have an update (chucks it at you)**

 **Angelwings: Ehh... close?**

 **Scorching Streaks of Paint: Sleuth Jesse hasn't figure it out yet, but if everyone else hasn't, I will throw something. xD**

 **rebekahtpe: Lol I know how you feel xD and yes. Yes I have xD**

 **Kaos Ruin: Not exactly :3**

 **starwolf22: You're pretty warm x3**

 **Choco: Not quite. But you're very welcome! x3**

 **SquiddytheBlaze: F**k this is hard. Uhhhhhh best friend I guess? Mainly because I have a chance of actually being able to save them, I have no upper body strength whatsoever and my bff is relatively light.**

 **x.X. A.L. X.x**


	18. Chapter 18

The next morning was a little hectic, what with Ivor throwing potions to them (and Gabriel fumbling his and dropping it on his foot) and Axel dropping six pieces of TNT all over the floor and making Olivia dive under a table as one of them lit and exploded somehow, and Soren cursing rather explosively when Lukas came bolting out of a room and body-slamming the man by accident (and Lukas then proceeding to try to move out of the way and falling flat on his face) and Petra dragging a frightened Aiden out of his room (none of them could tell if he was frightened because Petra was dragging him or if he was nervous about the coming task) while Jesse was trying to cram a piece of toast into her mouth and get everyone's attention at the same time (which, as you can probably guess, wasn't going all that well).

Finally, Jesse managed to finish the toast and drag Ivor off to the side, the alchemist having decided to come along after all. Upon explaining her theory, Ivor thought about it for a minute, dark blue eyes narrowing.

"... it's not a bad theory as far as they go. In fact, it might actually be right... but we're just going to have to see. And no, Reuben's not coming," he added when Jesse opened her mouth, "well... I mean, if he _does_ come he'll probably sneak in somehow."

Which was not a terribly comforting thought.

Anyway, after not-too-long (about an hour) the group were making their way through the desolate land. It was a little odd. There were some areas of the ground which looked really just like normal grass and dirt, and then there were these huge craters from where the Witherstorm had started absorbing them.

And Jessica, of course.

Jesse had to wonder why this world's counterpart of... uh... _her_ had even decided to try to bond with the Witherstorm. The Command Block may have had something to do with it, but... she didn't know anything about the Command Block or its power. And Soren's handwriting... well... it wasn't exactly what one would call beautiful.

"Uh... guys?"

Aiden was the one to literally squeak this about twenty minutes later, breaking the grim and _utter_ silence that had fallen over the group. Jesse had tried making a few incredibly weak attempts at conversation but stopped when nobody responded.

Everyone turned to look at Aiden, and then saw what he was looking at.

Gill and Maya skidded to a stop in the mud next to them, Gill completely overbalancing and getting a mouthful of mud. That's not what had made Aiden sound so frightened, though.

Reuben was standing next to them, his legs covered in mud and snuffling softly.

Jesse's eyes widened. "Reuben, I told you not to come!" she scolded the little pink pig, who looked very pleased with himself. Her head snapped over to Gill immediately, green eyes almost demanding an explanation.

"I am _so_ sorry he just bolted out and Notch he's _fast_ ," Gill was babbling out a furiously desperate apology, but was stopped when Jesse dropped her head into her hands. "It's... it's fine, Gill. I don't mind. Just don't let him wander off, okay?"

And so the group kept on walking, Jesse occasionally unleashing a spurt of scolding at Reuben before trailing off into mutters. Scolding, mutters, scolding, more mutters... it went on for some time.

Finally, they reached a cliffside and all of them stared upwards. Jesse felt her heart pick up speed as she followed everyone's gazes.

She'd actually forgotten what the Witherstorm looked like.

Oh, sure, she had a general idea, but what haunted her nightmares and flashbacks were the pink insides, that glowed with eerie light and had that putridly sweet scent and was like a deadly immune system. The pink nightmare where she'd destroyed the Command Block and let go of Reuben.

That was not something she could forget.

There was a tug on her arm, and Jesse shook herself out of her reverie to realize she'd been standing there, perfectly paralyzed, and now Lukas was trying to get her to come to an overhang.

She obediently followed him, upon which he dropped her arm and gave her a look. Now that she actually was paying attention to real life again, everyone was giving her a rather expectant look. Even Reuben was staring up at the raven-haired girl. She really didn't like all the attention. It was one of the reasons that she felt awkward going into town. Everyone would cheer for her and her friends and _Notch_ she was so socially awkward that she'd just stammer out something, high-five a random person, and then try to go somewhere private as quickly as humanly possible.

"Do we have a plan, then?" Olivia asked, "or are we just charging in?"

Jesse poked her head back out to look at the Witherstorm. Blocks floated around it in a maelstrom, a few blocks narrowly missing their little 'cave'.

"... well, if we can figure out a way to safely distract it, I can maybe find a way to make my way inside the Witherstorm..." Jesse spoke slowly, mind racing quickly, "and then... well, at that point I think I'll have to improvise, I don't know what will happen inside the Witherstorm."

 _There's a wild card in there that I don't know how to deal with,_ Jesse wanted to add, but decided not to.

She glanced back at the blocks that swirled around wildly, slowly ascending to the Witherstorm as tractor beams shone everywhere and another idea started forming in her head. "Actually, I could probably handle getting inside... but then there's still the problem of the fact that we'd have to distract it."

A soft cough. Everyone looked at Aiden, who was sheepishly rubbing his head. "Er... actually... I think we could handle one of the smaller Witherstorms." The other Ocelots nodded in agreement.

Magnus shrugged slightly, rubbing his arm. "Um... I'm sure Soren, Ivor, Gabriel and I could handle the other small one," he mumbled, in a very quiet voice that Jesse nearly missed, especially over the chaos that was going on outside. Jesse tried not to cringe as a block of iron ore scraped against a rock, making a loud screeching sound and spitting out some sparks.

"Well, I'm coming with you... I want to punch Jessica in the face," Axel said, clapping Jesse on the shoulder and nearly knocking her into the floor. Jesse laughed a bit nervously, getting back up.

"Yeah. When we get up there, I am going to rip that Witherstorm apart into the tiniest pieces possible and then-" Petra made a violent motion and nearly impaled Aiden, who jumped away.

"I still don't trust you that much. So I am coming as well," Lukas said, but there was a softer tone to his voice and his blue eyes seemed less cold than before.

Olivia just shrugged. So I guess she was coming along.

Reuben squealed, and Jesse shook her head. "Reuben, I need you to stay here, okay?"

The little pink pig let out an offended squeal and started squealing so insistently that a lot of the other people in the cave covered their ears in complaint.

"... okay, but you must stay in Olivia's bag, alright?"

Reuben hesitated with a funny snuffling noise as Olivia pulled out said bag. It was more of a small backpack than anything, and it was reinforced on the outside with steel weaving, courtesy of Olivia's getting bored. (Upon seeing the bag, Jesse had joked that Olivia ought to be a clothing designer. This world's Olivia smacked her.)

"You're not allowed to come if you don't-"

Reuben proceeded to nod and hop into the bag, wriggling down so that the backpack flap covered his head like a little hat or something.

Jesse looked around at them, clasping her hands together and drawing in a deep breath, before giving them all a weak smile.

"Let's get started, shall we?"

 **A/N: And we are actually getting kind of close to the end of the story! There's actually probably going to be 21 or 22 chapters in total, so... yeah, we're getting pretty close.**

 **Aww, sad times, ain't it? xD I've actually loved writing this! Thanks to Scorching Streaks of Paint for letting me adopt this! More thanks after the story's actually finished xD**

 **Oh! Please vote on the poll on my profile. If you've already done so, do it again, I put up a new poll. xD Thanks! To those of you who may or may not have already done this, you get a cookie xD**

 **NoItsBecky: You probably should xD**

 **Angelwings: Mine's Set it Off too, although I also like Christina Grimmie (rip) and NateWantstoBattle.**

 **KaosRuin: Uhh... okay xD**

 **Scorching Streaks of Paint: Yeah, I guess so xD**

 **rebekahtpe: ? And no, not really... and ninja moves. I could be a stunt actor xD**

 **RapidSammi: Hehehehe x3**

 **SquiddytheBlaze: Ahh cool. And all months have 28 days, obviously xD**

 **Choco: ... random comment? But I like biscuits, so xD**

 **Wisteria light: Hey no problem! And of course!**

 **x.X. A.L. X.x**


	19. Chapter 19

Jesse watched as Ivor hurled potions at the Witherstorm in the distance.

Before he'd left, he'd grabbed a small knapsack and literally thrust it at Jesse, nearly knocking her over with the zeal of his 'attack'. "You might need these," and then he'd run off after the others. Soren was building structures to distract both the small and the big Witherstorm, and Magnus... well, let me just say he had good aim with TNT. Gabriel was actually very good at fighting still, because he managed to slam away tentacles with well-placed strikes.

It was a shame that he didn't really like it anymore.

Aiden and the other Ocelots had somehow managed to get their hands on fireworks and were launching it at the other one, sending sparks of color spitting into the sky, building random structures, and generally being a nuisance. Thank Notch it was working.

"You guys ready?" She turned to look at the others.

Lukas raised his shoulders slightly in a shrug, Petra's eyes narrowing dangerously in answer. Olivia muttered assent, Reuben squealed, and Axel nodded.

Jesse looked at the five of them. It was funny... she couldn't imagine more different people than from _her_ friends, and yet she couldn't imagine them being any other way in a situation like this.

"Alright... go!"mming

And Jesse ran out of the cave, tensing her legs, before jumping into the air. For a moment, she felt totally weightless... then-

Her fingers grabbed onto a piece of iron ore that was flying into the air, and she dangled from it for a minute, kicking her legs in the air and daring herself to not look down before scrambling on more securely. Looking back, she spotted Petra charging out first and stabbing her sword into a random piece of dirt, lifting the redhead into the air, before Axel tackled a block of stone, Olivia and Reuben ran and barely made it to a dirt block, and Lukas grabbed ahold of a block of stone.

Jesse gave them all a grin, before looking up as they spiraled upwards. A huge chunk of stone soared at her, and she got up, making her block wobble unsteadily and sprang to another one, nearly missing before her fingers barely caught it. Kicking furiously, she repeated under her breath to herself in a soft, panicked mantra, "Don't fall don't fall don't fall."

She managed to get herself up more securely, looking up at the Witherstorm. They were getting ever closer, and it was utterly terrifying, and exhilirating, and all at once Jesse couldn't breathe because of how internally panicked she was-

"Jesse!"

Jesse whipped around to see Petra dangling from a block several feet away, eyes wide as she struggled to get herself back to something solid. Jesse chanced a glance down.

"Oh... that is a drop. That is _very_ much a drop..." she muttered, before her head snapped up, she got up again, her knees wobbling, and she lunged.

She slammed into the block next to it and sent it sailing at Petra's... Petra's fingers slipped just as Jesse slid over.

"Nope!" Jesse's fingers wrapped around Petra's wrist, the redhead's weight hanging so heavily that Jesse was unable to pull her up. This was quite the dilemma. Jesse couldn't pull Petra up, but if she kept holding Petra like this, they would both fall, and letting go was of course not an option...

Jesse looked down again to spot one block swirling towards them, and an idea came into her head. A stupid, reckless, insane idea, but an idea. "Do you think-?" she asked desperately.

Petra looked down to see what Jesse was looking at, and her gold eyes practically glowed with realization. "Yeah!" she shouted back.

Jesse leaned down as far as she dared, and let go.

Petra fell, her torso slamming roughly into the block moments later, nearly sliding off, and she very nearly fell again before managing to get a handhold. She looked up to see the black-haired female crouching and looking at her anxiously. She made a vague hand motion. "I think you bruised my ribs," she called back, faintly grouchily.

Jesse was relieved; if Petra hadn't complained she would've been more concerned. Sitting back and looking around, she spotted all of them soaring towards the Witherstorm. She desperately tilted her head around and spotted an opening. It was quickly shutting, though.

"Guys!" she hollered, waving her arm like a madman and pointing. Lukas glanced at it, eyes momentarily widening, before he called back, "Are you insane?!"

"Probably!"

Jesse's greatest strength- and arguably greatest weakness- was that in situations like these, she didn't take a moment to think it through, because they didn't have time. When being pressed for time, she'd just do the first thing that made sense to her. As her block went whirling past the hole, she tensed her knees again and sprang forward, hands outstretched desperately.

Her fingers slapped into the surface of the hole, and she yanked herself through. Axel followed (Jesse had to yank him through quickly), Olivia slipped in, Lukas followed, and Petra just _barely_ made it in before the hole sealed shut. As it was, it almost closed on her ankle, and Lukas just automatically grabbed the redhead and yanked her in so hard that after thanking him for helping, she proceeded to complain about how he'd nearly dislocated her arm.

So, basically, they were all fine.

Jesse didn't have time to feel relieved when she heard a voice that made chills run up her spine. "Well, what do we have here?"

Slowly, all six of them turned to see a girl wearing a red-sleeved t-shirt under a pair of pale blue dungarees. Her black hair mingled with the black skin covering her right eye, which glowed indigo and purple and red, and tickled her hands which were blacker than squid ink.

A slow, strange smile crept over Jessica's face.

 **A/N: Third appearance! And about two or three more chapters.**

 **Also, sorry if chapters in Charade are shitty... I've never written for Gabriel before. (not much, anyway) This next chapter shouldn't be _as_ cruddy since Chiaki's real appearance _should_ be revealed.**

 **Sorry, spoilers xD**

 **Also, please vote on my poll! If you do, you get virtual cookies! If you already have, you get extra virtual cookies!**

 **NoItsBecky: Uhh whichever kind you like.**

 **Wisteria light: Yes, I caught it xD**

 **Kaos Ruin: Lol xD And yep. Also, Jessica probably won't be b-slapped. Sorry. xD**

 **Scorching Streaks of Paint: (thumbs up)**

 **rebekahtpe: Nice! And yes, I think. Fear of Clowns, and yes, I'm pretty sure there is a fear of doors.**

 **RapidSammi: Lol, bye Sammi x3**

 **SquiddytheBlaze: I love teasers, you're going to have to work really, really, really, REALLY hard to find one that'll stump me.**

 **angelwings: Ahh, that sucks. Well, hope he feels better! And cool :3 Yes, you may have a cookie. HAVE ALL DA COOKIES (spills a basket of cookies on you) Oh, whoops.**

 **GuestPerson13: Most likely not?**

 **Choco: Hehehehe x3**

 **x.X. A.L. X.x.**


	20. Chapter 20

"Hm, this is an interesting situation," Jessica said mildly, huge black tentacles unfurling slowly from her back as she pulled out her sword with a casual flick of the wrist, "never met myself before."

Her strange smile widened. "Or killed myself."

Jesse's instincts screamed at her to move, and she grabbed the person behind her- Olivia- and yanked her to the left, rolling quickly to avoid the blade that skewered the air, her own sword scraping on metal as she whipped it out.

Petra lunged at Jessica, who simply stood there until the furious redhead was almost upon her.

Then she simply bent over, Petra still charging and therefore not reacting fast enough, before grabbing the redhead's ankle, straightening up and flinging Petra into the air, before one tentacle shot up and snared the redhead again, said redhead's eyes barely having enough time to widen and flung her into the opposite wall.

"Petra!" everyone yelled.

For a second, something flickered into Jessica's expression, but then it was gone.

Jesse charged at Jessica, the indigo-and-purple eyes flicking to her, and the other girl simply sliding back a step as Jesse lashed out, before Jesse danced back to avoid the blade that barely flashed past her ribs.

Axel fumbled a piece of TNT before chucking it at Jessica. Jessica turned, one tentacle moving up and gently catching the dynamite.

She balanced it precariously on the tentacle for a moment, watching the fuse burn down the string, before the tentacle unfurled again and flung the TNT at Axel. Axel's eyes widened, and he barely had time to grab Lukas by the shoulders and dive out of the way before the TNT blew another hole in the Witherstorm's side.

Lukas extracted himself from Axel's grip and threw a knife at Jessica, the girl simply flicking one of the black tentacles up and knocking it up and out of the way.

Jesse charged again, but Jessica sidestepped and brought the blade down at Jesse, said girl catching one end of the strong blade in her free hand and bringing it up in a quick block, sparks spraying everywhere as Jesse struggled against the other female. A flash of black, and Jesse flung herself backwards and rolled backwards, landing back on one knee.

Jesse's eyes narrowed.

Jessica was smart- hell, Jesse was totally prepared to say that Jessica was incredibly clever, maybe even more so than Ellegaard and Olivia- and she had all of the advantages. Both terrain-wise and strength-wise. Fighting her directly would most likely result in a rather painful death, especially judging by her cold, completely emotionless expression as she regarded Jesse. TNT, and swords, and potions, and redstone would do nothing against an adversary of this strength.

But Jesse did have one other thing she might be able to use to her advantage.

"Why are you doing this?" she asked the other girl softly, letting the sword dangle harmlessly at her side.

Jessica's eyes narrowed, standing and watching Jesse with a strange look. "Shouldn't you know? After all, you're me, aren't you?" her voice dripped with soft sarcasm. It was soft and dangerous and almost sadistic.

"No, I don't. I don't get why you'd abandon your best friends," Jesse said simply.

Jessica's eyes narrowed at her. Jesse definitely saw _something_ flicker in the girl's eyes before it was gone again. "Who would be able to resist the offer to become a god?" she said finally, staring at Jesse, her expression looking oddly blank.

Jesse thought about that for a minute.

To abandon Lukas, who liked writing and was good at it and, okay, maybe a little arrogant but still one of the kindest people Jesse knew, or Petra, who was brave and loyal and a good fighter, or Axel, who annoyed her to the ends of the earth but was good at pranking and one of the most loyal friends Jesse knew, or Olivia, who'd been with Jesse since they were little kids and who loved to make redstone creations and was good at it, or Reuben, the most loyal pet- friend, she should say friend and not pet- she could ever imagine, or even Ivor or Aiden, who she didn't even like all that much...

Well, she couldn't even imagine that.

"I would," Jesse said to Jessica, finally.

Jessica stared at Jesse, before her expression contorted and she squeezed her eyes shut, shaking with effort. "This... this is useless..." A weak, dark laugh, before silence fell. The only sounds were from the muffled battle outside of the Witherstorm.

Suddenly, Jessica's head snapped up, eyes wide and glowing and insane. "GO TO HELL!"

Tentacles flailed into the air, Jesse gasping and scrambling backwards, before one tentacle soared straight up, curving when it reached the ceiling- well, more like the top of the Witherstorm- and then plunging right at Jesse.

Jesse gasped and backpedaled, but she had no time to do anything else before the tentacle crushed her body, squeezing her so tightly that she swore her ribs were cracking, barely able to retain her sword-

Lukas flashed past her, flicking out a sword and bringing it up over her head with a ringing sound of metal on metal-

Another tentacle slammed him into the floor, and one tentacle brought the sword up into the air, flicking it and making the blade flash bloody pink, before the sword came plunging down at Lukas-

"NO!" Petra screamed. Jesse was frozen in place, an incoherent cry leaving her lips, and Reuben let out an alarmed almost- _scream_ as Olivia covered her face and Axel's eyes widened. Lukas let out the softest gasp, his blue eyes widening-

The sword stopped.

Mere centimeters from Lukas's heart, the blade started to tremble, before it dropped to the side, clanging as it fell to the floor and bounced a bit, as the tentacles all retreated, dropping Jesse back to the floor, and Jessica staggered backwards, utter horror coming over her face as she slowly put a blackened hand to her mouth. "What..." she whispered, eyes wide, one of them back to green, before slowly turning to face one of the heads on the opposite wall.

" _What did you try to make me do?"_

 **A/N: 'Eyyyy, plot twist. Well, not really...**

 **Whatever! Next chapter (or two?) will be pretty interesting.**

 **NoItsBecky: That is a fairly accurate thing to say xD**

 **rebekahtpe: Um, angry Jesse... I know her more so she might calm down faster.**

 **RapidSammi: Lol x3**

 **Kaos Ruin: Haha xD**

 **Scorching Streaks of Paint: Yep xD**

 **x.X. A.L. X.x.**


	21. Chapter 21

Jessica was staring at the head on the wall in horror. Jesse was confused as to why. " _What did you try to make me do?_ " she whispered, beginning to shake, "you... you told me... you told me I would be able to get them out... but if they're dead, then..."

" _He was trying to kill you._ " Everyone in the room except for Jessica shuddered at the voice. It was eerie, with it's genderless, emotionless voice that wasn't a voice. _"I thought it was necessary."_

"You _promised_ that I'd be able to get them back out," Jessica said, her eyes slowly darkening as her face darkened, her hands slowly stopping their shaking and dropping back to her sides. Her teeth gritted. "You were lying, weren't you?"

The Wither was silent.

Jessica glared at the thing, her eyes beginning to fill with tears as a soft growl seemed to fill her throat.

Jesse coughed slightly, making Jessica glance at her. "Hey... uh, what did you mean by getting them back out?"

Jessica glared at Jesse for a moment, making the black-haired girl scoot back a step, before responding, her facial expression slowly relaxing, "the Witherstorm made me a promise... that if I bonded with the Witherstorm, I could get my friends back out once I absorbed their magic."

Jesse knew what Jessica was referring to- one time when they were relaxing, Jesse had asked Ivor what he was reading to make conversation. She'd then been treated to an hour-long lesson about how magic bound every block together, even humans.

And then she remembered another part of that lesson.

"But... that's not possible. Once the magic is absorbed, the block loses its ability to keep its shape, and for humans, it loses the ability to keep it alive. Magic is what keeps us together and alive and what... well, what we call human."

Jessica went still.

Slowly, she turned back to the Witherstorm head, her expression completely blank. "Is this true?"

" _No... don't listen to her... she's lying..._ "

"No, she's not."

Every head in the room snapped to see Lukas frowning, his eyes narrowed in thought as he propped himself up on his elbows. "I know what both of you are referring to, and Jesse- that one," he pointed at Jesse, "she's right. Once the magic has been absorbed from a human, that human loses the ability to live- they become sort of like a spirit. You can hear their dreams and thoughts, but there's no way to get their body back unless frozen, like these people," and he waved at the people frozen in place, suspended in purple crystals, mouth open and eyes glowing purple. "- and you can't gain enough magic if you do that," he added.

Jessica was shaking now, and Jesse nervously stepped back away from the sort-of-possessed-being in front of her, before Jessica whirled away to face the Witherstorm, her shoulders shaking- but from what, Jesse couldn't tell.

"You lied, didn't you?"

The Witherstorm was silent again.

Jessica stared at the Witherstorm, pure loathing in her face. "If I could destroy that damned Command Block, I'd kill you, you-" she proceeded to unleash a flood of names, none of which I am going to repeat.

" _But only you know where it is... and you don't have a weapon to defeat it,"_ the Witherstorm said, for once a hint of what seemed like amusement playing into its voice, " _and you're hardly going to just trust these 'friends' of yours to defeat it... besides, I'd be able to stop them at all costs. They wouldn't have something strong enough to defeat it, anyway."_

"That's what you think."

Jessica turned to look at Jesse slowly, a confused look playing in her eyes.

Jesse's impulses took control, and she walked towards Jessica.

Petra let out a hiss of pain, grabbing at her arm. "Be careful..." the redhead hissed softly.

Jesse slowly came within reach of Jessica. She was a bit surprised to see that the other female, despite being the same person, was technically an inch or so shorter- she must not have hit her growth spurt, yet.

Jesse reversed the sword in her hand and held it out to Jessica in offering.

"Jesse..." Olivia sounded warning... and a bit concerned for the black-haired girl's sanity.

Jessica looked at the glowing, miasmic sword in Jesse's hands, before slowly taking it.

Jesse stood in front of Jessica, totally unarmed.

Jessica stared at the slightly taller female for a moment, before she stepped back, turning away from Jesse, walking towards one of the purple crystal clusters that were on the ceiling. Jessica turned to look at it, and clicked her fingers together. The cluster shattered, a single block falling from the ceiling and landing on the floor, bouncing once before clicking into place, glowing with red, green, purple, pink, gold sparks hovering around it, the Command Block innocuously resting on the floor.

" _No... what are you doing?"_ a hint of fear, almost, crept into the Witherstorm's voice.

Jessica stared at the Witherstorm blankly, before circling around the block and turning to face all of her friends, flicking the sword so that the blade faced downwards, her other hand turning to clasp the handle.

She looked up at all of them slowly, one eye still dead indigo and purple.

Jesse's heart was thudding away in her chest as she and her friends who weren't _quite_ her friends, personality and appearance and almost everything-wise, stared at Jessica.

Jessica raised the blade slowly, the blade hovering two feet above the Command Block.

" _No! What are you doing?! Are you really going to believe-_ "

The Witherstorm never finished what it was planning to say, because at that moment, Jessica's gaze hardened, and she drove the blade down with superhuman force.

Sparks exploded from the Command Block, and an unearthly scream rang out in the room, everyone clutching at their ears in pain as the ghostly wail blasted, shredded at their ears, gravity seeming to lose hold on them all as the Witherstorm and the room inside the Witherstorm fell down towards the earth from its great height, Jesse's feet flying off the floor into the air as they all fell, their screams eclipsed by the horrible sound that was the Witherstorm screaming, screaming in pain and agony and rage and-

And it stopped.

There was an earth-shattering BANG as they hit the ground again, Jesse landing hard on her legs and staggering, falling and landing flat on her back, knocking all the air out of her lungs.

There was a few moments of silence as everyone stared, Jessica staring down at the shattered remains of the Command Block, the sword now dangling limply in her right hand, her right eye bleeding some sort of strange purplish pus, back to green again.

She coughed, one blackened hand slowly travelling up to cover her mouth.

Slowly, she lowered it again, the hand glistening with something dark red and shiny.

Jessica stared at her bloody hand for a moment, faint surprise in her expression, before her knees buckled, and she fell like a puppet that had the strings cut to the floor.

* * *

 **A/N: And, wow, next chapter, this story will be finished. The support I've gotten on this story is... wow.**

 **Oh! Please vote on the poll on my profile; as soon as I finish this story I will need the feedback to start my next story!**

 **rebekahtpe: Yep! And toast unicorns :3**

 **NoItsBecky: Lol xD**

 **Kaos Ruin: Well, if it's any consolation, next chapter there will be no cliffhangers...**

 **Choco: Lol xD**

 **RapidSammi: (goes over to help) Stop breaking, Sammi-kun.**

 **SquiddytheBlaze: Hehe x3**

 **Angelwings: Ahaha sorry xD**

 **x.X. A.L. X.x**


	22. Chapter 22

"Jesse?!" Jesse stumbled as Axel reflexively pushed past her and ran over to his former friend, a momentary flash of panic in his eyes as he bolted past the slightly taller dark-haired girl.

Scrambling back to her feet, she followed, Olivia and Petra following behind her and Lukas reluctantly trailing behind them all.

Jessica was coughing again as Axel tried to keep her up, her entire body quaking as one hand covered her mouth, purple oozing from her clear green eye.

When she removed her blackened hand again, a faint smile came over her face, a trickle of blood leaking out of the side of her mouth. "H... h-hey... guys..." she said weakly, giving them all a smile, before convulsing again and coughing. Flecks of blood landed on her white t-shirt.

Reuben wormed out of the bag and timidly approached Jessica. She sat up a bit, wincing visibly as some blood mixed with the pus flowed down her cheek. "H-hey... Reuben..." She reached out with one bloodied hand and fondled his ears, making the small pink pig flinch a bit before relaxing at her gentle motion, smearing a small splot of red on his forehead, before coughing yet again, hand going back to her mouth.

Petra (sort of gently) shouldered past Jesse and fell to her knees next to Jessica, punching the injured girl with all of her force in the shoulder. Jessica jerked a bit, her head bobbing around limply, wincing slightly. Then Petra grabbed Jessica and yanked her into an incredibly rough, incredibly brusque hug, ignoring the blood that was now smearing down her front and not saying anything. Olivia quietly joined into the hug-pile, Axel yanking an incredibly reluctant Lukas into the hug as well. Reuben let out a soft whine as he nuzzled his head into Jessica's midriff. Jesse stepped back a bit, looking at the scene in front of her, the six friends entwined together in a hug for what must've been the first time in... well, a very long time.

It was absolutely heartbreaking.

Jesse knelt down next to Jessica slowly once the hug broke apart, her brow creasing in worry. "Are... you okay?" she asked, slowly, not sure what else she could really say.

Jessica tilted one head to the side as she considered that question. "... not really," she responded faintly, a faint smile coming over her lips, before coughing up more blood, a good deal of it landing on her dungarees this time.

Lukas knelt on the other side, one hand holding hers loosely, as if he hadn't made contact with her in ages and wasn't sure how to do so. He looked at her, brow creasing. "Are you... dying?" he asked, slowly, as if he wasn't sure this was an appropriate question to ask her.

Jessica considered this question as well. She seemed to be taking far too long to consider the answer to this short question, her eyelids slowly drooping as she thought, mouth hanging slightly open. "... yes, I think so," she said finally, before coughing again, not even bothering to raise her hand to try to block it this time.

"Why?" This very blunt question came from Petra. Jesse glanced at the redhead and wasn't too surprised to see that tears were prickling in the redhead's gold eyes, Petra's face screwed up in what looked like anger to keep said tears from coming out of her eyes.

Jessica's head lolled a bit. She looked incredibly, incredibly tired. It took her several seconds to answer. "... I think... I've gotten too... dependent on the... Command Block... over time... like the Witherstorm," she said slowly, weakly coughing and sending another tiny river of blood flowing out of the corner of her mouth and trickling down her deathly pale chin. "So... when I got rid... of it... I guess... my system... just isn't strong enough... by itself... anymore."

Jesse felt chills shoot down her back. She'd seen death before- only once or twice, and once wasn't even _human_ , but she'd seen it. It looked sad and quiet and lonely. It looked frightening in its own quiet, slow way.

It looked like this.

"S... sorry..." Jessica smiled again at them, her eyes wrinkling up and making more blood and purple pus flow down her face, another rivulet of blood trickling down her cheek. "About... all... this... I missed you... guys..." Her words were slowly getting slower and slower, and her eyes were slowly lowering. Her chest hitched a bit as her breath caught in her lungs on the way out.

"Hey... hey, no. You're not dying on us," Axel gave Jessica a shake, making her head loll on her shoulders. "Ivor- Ivor can probably whip up a potion... there's still a lot of people who want to punch the hell out of you..."

"... forgot... heh... how..." Jessica coughed, splattering yet more blood down her front. Her eyes were slowly sliding shut. "... bipolar... you can be..." It seemed to take too much effort, but she glanced up. "Is... Lukas... still... cold?"

"Like a glacier," Jesse joked, but her heart really wasn't in it, and her chuckle died before it even made it out of her mouth, sounding more like someone had just punched her in the ribs.

Jessica laughed, the motion sending yet more blood trickling out of her mouth. "I knew... I could... count on him... to be like that..." her green eyes slowly went to Petra, Olivia, and Reuben in turn, a dazed look coming into her eyes. "There's... a lot... I want to say to you guys," her voice had dropped to a low, frail whisper. It sounded as if someone threw a rock at her, she would shatter.

"Just... hang on, Jesse," Olivia said, her hands twisting together. She looked uncomfortable, but Jesse could see the tears beginning to form in the corner of her eyes. "Ivor'll be here really soon..."

Jessica just chuckled again, softly, breath hitching a bit on the way out. Her head slowly tilted so that she was looking at Jesse, her chest slowly rising and falling. "Hey... th... thanks... f-for..."

The sword rested in her hand weakly, the miasmic effect totally gone now, except for the slightest glimmer. Jessica kept tilting her head up to try to make eye-contact with the green-eyed girl. Jesse carefully moved so that she could see Jessica's green eyes and the way the other girl was struggling to say something to her, struggling and grasping for words that would not come.

"Hey, I get it. You're welcome," Jesse said softly, giving her a smile.

Jessica returned it, before slowly trying to move her hand. "I... think... this is... yours..." she was trying and failing to lift the sword in her hand. Jesse reached out, took it out of the girl's hands, and sheathed it into place on her back. "Thanks," she said quietly, trying to keep a small smile on her face.

Jessica's faint smile wavered a bit, and her eyes moved back to her friends, but they were slowly going out of focus. "I..." A slow inhale. Slow exhale. The tiniest smile came over her face as one last moment of clarity lit up her green eyes. "I... love... you... guys..."

The smile slowly faded, and Jessica was no longer looking at any of them. That is to say, she was looking at them- in fact you could say she was staring at them- but she was _not_ looking at them. She was seeing something far away in the distance. Axel was shaking Jessica now, shouting, but she wasn't moving or speaking or even smiling anymore, she was just staring into space, and Jesse could hear none of it through the buzzing that filled her ears.

Jesse's hand found its way to her mouth. "Oh my Notch," she said quietly.

Olivia's eyes glistened with tears, and she slowly sat back, letting her eyes shut. Petra's hands shook with anger and fury and tears, gold eyes glowing with liquid. Lukas swallowed and shut his own eyes, his fists clenching in his lap. Reuben let out a whine and nudged Jessica's limp hand, but it didn't move.

Jesse finally, slowly reached out and slid the eyelids down, because she didn't want to see those emerald-green eyes, _her_ eyes, staring back at her emptily when there'd used to be something behind it. Maybe something not that wonderful, maybe someone cruel or evil or misguided, but there'd used to be _something_.

And now there was nothing.

Footsteps. Jesse turned to see Ivor and Soren and Magnus and all the others run in, stopping in their tracks at the sight of the group huddled around the broken body on the floor. Jesse slowly stood up and looked at them. She looked at them for a long minute, not sure what to say, before turning her gaze back to Jessica again. Her own eyes felt a little wet, prickling uncomfortably with tears.

There was a long moment of silence, completely empty and devoid of sound except for the sound of soft crying. Jesse stepped back to let the friends have a moment with their old friend, before something sparked in the corner of her eye. She turned her head to see a Nether Portal several feet away...

Except it had that zigzag pattern. The Nether Portal's substance zigged and zagged jaggedly, the spirals looking more like odd lightning bolts.

As everyone slowly crowded around Jessica, some looking unsure (Soren and Gabriel), some looking slightly sorrowful (Aiden), and all of them looking a little lost at the scene in front of them, Jesse carefully approached it, her brow furrowing.

Why was there a Nether Portal here? Why now? It was almost- no, scratch that, it _was_ a cruel joke that it would suddenly... I don't know, just _appear_ right after someone died...

A force suddenly pushed her forward, and Jesse let out an alarmed gasp as she toppled straight in, scorching, deadly heat overtaking her as she fell through the portal again, the sudden heat stealing all moisture from her mouth and making her skin prickle uncomfortably.

She turned at the last second, and for some reason, she could see the group still huddled around Jessica through the purple zigzag, fading from sight with every passing moment. She drew in a breath, making her throat scream with complaint, but she had to say _something_ to these people she'd started getting used to, these people that she would miss incredibly.

"I'm-!"

Ivor's head jerked up first at the first blurted sound that burst out of Jesse's throat, and the alchemist was on his feet in moments, wide-eyed. "Jesse-?!"

The rest of the group followed suit, twisting or jumping up to see her falling through the portal.

"I'm sorry I couldn't help you all more!" Jesse shouted, feeling tears fill her eyes, the liquid finally pouring out of her sparkling green eyes. "I'm sorry!"

And then she was gone.

* * *

Her back slammed into the floor, and she coughed, her throat feeling uncomfortably dry from the portal.

"Jesse?!"

Jesse tilted her head back to see Lukas staring at her, upside down, blue eyes warm and filled with concern, a huge deviation of the Lukas she'd started getting used to, had just started getting accustomed to. "Are you okay?!"

"... y-yeah." Jesse sat up, turning around to see the blonde better in the light of the portal, "yeah, I'm fine."

"Where were you?!" Petra looked both immensely relieved and incredibly angry. "You worried us, you know?! You can't disappear on us like that! Not for five minutes! We didn't even know where you were!" Her arms were starting to flap in agitation.

"H-haha... sorry..."

So it had only been five minutes here in the hallway...

Strange to know that and put it into perspective with everything that had happened.

Ivor scowled at her, crossing his arms. "Well, as long as we're here... was there anything going on with this portal?" he jerked his head at said portal.

Jesse thought about telling them. About meeting their counterparts, her counterpart, slowly befriending them all, reacquainting herself with everything she'd ever known, everyone she'd ever met, and known, and hated, or loved, or cared about. She thought about telling them that she'd seen Reuben again, been able to touch him and hug him and cry over him. She thought about telling them about how she'd died, watched herself take her last breath and say her last words.

"... no. It was just a world that was completely made up of the Nether," Jesse finally replied. "Definitely not home."

Petra groaned. "Notch-dammit!" she shouted, throwing her hands into the air in frustration.

She couldn't.

"Well, back to searching, then, I suppose," Ivor sighed, looking irritated and rubbing a hand through his black hair, dark-blue eyes flickering with irritation but relief at the sight of the dark-haired girl completely alright, not even a bruise worse for wear.

Jesse faked a grin and got back to her feet. "Yeah, I guess."

The others moved ahead, going back to arguing about portals again, making Jesse's hurting heart heal a bit at the familiar sound. She was about to leave that section of the hallway, start walking once more.

 _Thanks..._

She froze.

She turned back to the portal slowly, eyes wide. For a moment, the zigzag substance seemed to slow down, a whisper floating through the hallway and into her ears from the interdimensional doorway.

 _Thanks for everything..._

Jesse stared at the portal for a minute, eyes slowly widening.

Had she just...

Was that just her imagination?

"Hey."

Jesse started before she turned back around to see Petra waiting at the entrance to the offshoot, a small, lopsided grin on her face. "You coming?" she asked, casually.

"... yeah. Coming!" and Jesse turned around and followed her friends back into the hallway.

Jesse reached the entrance of the offshoot, pausing for a moment, before following her friends again, breaking into a jog. "Hey! Wait up!" she called, a small smile forming on her face as she ran after them, some of her best friends in the world.

If she'd looked back right when she'd reached the entrance of the offshoot, she would've seen the portal's substance slowly changing, to a slightly less jagged formation, the swirls halfway back in the portal, halfway looking like odd lightning bolts, looking... oddly... a little like broken hearts, that fixed themselves, then broke, then fixed themselves, and then broke in an endless, miasmic loop.

 _Thank you._

* * *

 **A/N: GOSH DANG IT I CRIED WRITING THIS CHAPTER**

 **The amount of support I've received on this adopted story in the one month I've had it up and running is phenomenal and I am so very grateful that all of you are my viewers. I am very sorry for possibly making some of you people cry xD And a HUGE thanks to Scorching Streaks of Paint for letting me adopt this wonderful story and complete it in my own way!**

 **So, if you've voted on my poll... you've probably noticed that literally EVERY PERSON WHO VOTED VOTED FOR THE HYBRID SEQUEL. Seriously.**

 **So...**

 **I think you all know which story is coming out next.**

 **Once again, THANK YOU for all of the love, complaints about the cliffhangers, and virtual snacks you've all been giving me!**

 **Wisteria light: Hehe xD And no, unfortunately not. Because then Jesse would've died... xD Imagine you have someone who looks exactly like you, except with some deliberate changes, and some different behavioral patterns.**

 **Kaos Ruin: Lol xD**

 **NoItsBecky: Summary is that Jessica almost killed Lukas, realized the fact she was about to kill one of her only friends, and freaked out because of the fact that the Witherstorm had started controlling her. Jesse then helps her realize that she was lied to, before giving her the sword. Jessica then reveals where the Command Block is hidden and stabs the Command Block. I hope that was enough to help you understand xD**

 **Scorching Streaks of Paint: Lol xD I suppose**

 **rebekahtpe: Pretty accurate. ... (coughs) haven't had either sponge or velvet cake...**

 **RapidSammi: Lol xD**

 **Choco: Jesse was a short person... so her growth spurts are like in little bursts. Like, when she has one she has them in one or two inches rather than three or four.**

 **Signing off for the last time on Different Outcomes,**

 **x.X. A.L. X.x**

* * *

 _ **Only one.**_

 _ **One choice.**_

 _ **One movement.**_

 _ **One request.**_

 ** _It only takes one thing to have completely_**

 ** _Different Outcomes._**


End file.
